Phoenix-fire
by Ocadioan
Summary: The fourth and final part of the A dance of Shadow and Light series. Nearly 400 years have passed since we last saw the two, but now an unexpected threat has suddenly arisen to threaten not only Alagaësia, but the very riders themselves. Follow now, as the fate of the world is decided in an epic struggle of wills, convictions and ideologies, where the lucky ones die first.
1. Home is behind

Happy Mammoth Monday!...long time no see?  
Hehe, I must admit that I started a bit later than I had scheduled, two weeks to be exact, but I had a period of four weeks before Christmas, where the very notion of spare time was lost to me, and I have only managed to catch up to two of those.

Anyway, the story will be updated every Mammoth Monday and Before Friday Thursday(there are good(actually scratch that). There are reasons for them being called this listed in the previous stories).

Anyway, for first time readers(you might want to start at the beginning of the story):  
"**Bold text inside quotation marks is someone speaking in the Ancient langauge**"  
"_Italic text inside quotation marks is now defined as the character speaking in any other language than the human one and Ancient one_"  
_Italic text without quotation marks are direct thoughts_.Oh, and in case you are still wondering over the ADG or BDG, know that they stand for After- or Before the Death of Galbatorix, and if you are extremely lazy, then you can just read the timeline in my Sidestories to get a quick understanding of what has happened until now.

And so, here is the first chapter. Enjoy.

* * *

**Home is behind**

**Loivissa POV(late winter, 641 ADG)  
**It was the spring 641 years after Galbatorix had died, 470 years since she had first met the being known as Mercury Iridium and 393 years since He had betrayed her utterly and wholly when He had used her ill-given oath to force her to do something completely against her will.

After that fateful night, she had returned to Alagaësia heartbroken and in tears. Her friends and family had all tried their best to comfort her, but nothing had worked for long, so, instead of continuing to grieve over someone that she could no longer stand, she had decided on the second-best thing to do; try to erase all evidence of Him from her life.

That being said, it had been easier said than done, though no one could say that she had not tried fervently. Her first action had been to spend a ton of money, almost to the point of bankrupting herself, on rebuilding every single part of Nolondil, along with renaming it Dras Draumr.

Unfortunately, the mountain's name of Eregion had been too firmly engraved in the collective conscious and The Empire's administrative branch to be changed, though she certainly had tried her best to make it happen nonetheless.

She had also been the primary force behind encouraging the then High Queen Alarice to send spies to Damocles in order to keep watch of what He was doing over there, though quite a few of the riders that had known him personally had also been rather forward about their belief that it would be best if the dragon riders were to move into Damocles to make sure that He did not act against the best interest of the world.

He had of course refused any permanent establishment of a dragon rider outpost inside the boundaries of His kingdom, and since the dragon riders, and Alagaësia in general, were not strong enough after the Second Ra'zac War to force any treaty on Him, they had had to resort to simply monitor his actions via human imperial spies.

Unfortunately, as it so often happened with the short-lived mortal races, High Queen Alarice's successor had not decided to keep funding the espionage network that they had planted within Damocles, and although Loivissa could see his argument for his actions; nothing of importance had happened that could be of any concern to The Empire's citizens for four decades, she had, at the time, felt that it was the wrong move to make.

After the withdrawal of the spies, nothing really happened outside of Alagaësia's borders. The world outside of them might as well not have existed, as any and all knowledge of it only became scarcer and more obscure with every generation that passed without any news or meetings between Alagaësians and the outsiders.

Stories became myths, myths became legends and His legend was an epic one among the commoners of Alagaësia. When seen from the viewpoint of such commoners, Loivissa had no problems with understating just why it was that His legend had become so grand.

Unlike her own father's legend, His was not the single tale of a dragon rider that rose up to lead a rebellion and defeat a tyrant, before he sailed east, never to be seen again in the western lands. No, His legend was one of an entirely different nature.

His was one of an ordinary human male that had fought toe to toe along with the mightiest of Alagaësia's warriors. It was also one of death and resurrection, of bargaining with gods and achieving immortality and mystical powers beyond mortal comprehension in order to protect and of appearing just when Alagaësia needed Him the most in order to save it from the clutches of destruction.

Of course, it went without saying that most of the legend was a lie. In half of His epic fights, He had been cheating or otherwise tricking His opponent, and the other half were only added on later. His "resurrection" had been nothing more than a magical healing, though an extensive one at that, His so-called powers were all based on lies and deceit, except for Him actually being a quite accomplished mage, and His appearances to "save" Alagaësia from destruction had never been as simple as the commoners had seen them as.

Still, like with the Eregion name, the legend of Him had been too firmly engraved into the collective conscious for Loivissa to even bother to try to make corrections to it. Over the past four centuries, she had however succeeded in finding and destroying any and all remains that He had left behind after the Shadow War.

Still, the consequences of the Second Ra'zac War had affected many others in her family than just her. Helen had for example refused to even touch a dragon egg afterwards, as she might have been traumatized after what had happened to her mother and the state that her aunt had returned to Alagaësia in, and so, it had been another five generations before another dragon rider had been found from the Shadeslayer bloodline.

There had been other changes close to Loivissa's person too, as Blödhgarm had left the dragon rider council and returned to western Alagaësia to help rebuild it not long after the end of the Second Ra'zac War left. His dedication to rebuilding his homeland, his deep-seated wisdom from his centuries on the council and his unwavering loyalty to his elven monarch had since then secured him the position as Queen Islanzadi's foremost bodyguard and advisor.

As for returning to how Loivissa had fared afterwards, the withdrawal of the spies from Damocles had not been easy on her peace of mind. Soon after they had been withdrawn, she had begun seeing His face in the dark crevices in Dras Draumr late at night, and she had soon been forced to leave the estate entirely to Helen's descendants in order to try to get away from his ghost.

And still, He would not stop tormenting her, as whenever she found herself without anything to do for too long, her mind would constantly wander to Him, and in order to prevent this from happening, she had had to constantly keep herself busy.

This decision had led her to accept any and all dragon rider-duties, no matter how menial they were and how she was far too experienced to have to deal with such matters. It was this tendency to constantly keep herself busy that had over time earned her a reputation of never needing any rest or any vacation, just the next assignment.

Over the centuries, she had been presented as an example for numerous young riders to follow and had received many recommendations by Lifaen, the commander of the dragon riders in western Alagaësia, which had replaced Evandar 470 years ago, and his dragon; the silver-coloured female, Sil.

Loivissa had hated it at first, as what drove her to work as hard as she did was not something that should be sought after or held up for people to admire, but eventually, she had come to accept that presenting her as an example of a hard-working senior dragon rider to all the new dragon riders and dragons that were full of themselves for having just graduated, was indeed just another way of helping the dragon rider order.

Her work ethic was what had landed her where and when she was right now; walking down a dark narrow alley in Teirm close to midnight in just another one of her luckily endless assignments. This current assignment was actually a bit of a curiosity, as it did not actually involve directly helping anyone or ousting and stopping some group of unlawful troublemakers.

In fact, her assignment consisted of figuring out why virtually all the bandit groups and other shady people that roamed Alagaësia had slowly but surely begun to vanish over the past years. You knew that you were running out of things to spend your time on when you began investigating why there was not anything out of order.

The problem, or lack of one, had taken several years before anyone had even started noticing it, and when they had finally figured out that for some reason, troublemakers were disappearing, almost everyone had pretty much just rejoiced and not bothered to look further into it.

The almost being that the dragon riders had indeed found it disconcerting, and after failing to convince the Empire to launch a proper investigation of the matter, they had taken matters into their own hands and had launched their own investigation, which pretty much just consisted of Loivissa trying to figure out what had happened, as it was still not thought of as high enough of a priority to put multiple riders on the job.

Her own investigation into the matter had actually not born all that much fruit after an entire year had passed since it had begun, and it had only been recently that she had managed to get into contact with her first solid lead into what exactly had happened to all of those people.

The lead was a person that was well known among the Empire's agents, which was how she had learned of him, though he had not used to be anything more than the owner of a business that helped fence stolen items for thieves and whatnot.

His aid in stopping several more aggressive bandit groups had been what had kept him out of jail and able to continue his shady side-business, but like so many others, virtually all of his shady businesses had apparently stopped half a year ago.

The usual authorities had written it up to him finally going all legit and had cared nothing more for it, but Loivissa, who was in a position to see the larger picture, had spotted that all of the known money-launderers, fences and other such shady people were one by one supposedly going completely legitimate virtually overnight.

In the end, she had chosen the Teirm fence because he was known to be cooperative when he thought that something was threatening his neighbourhood or the safety of his city or country. A fence he may be, but he was also highly patriotic.

She had left Adûn waiting in the Teirm keep, as bringing a dragon to a meeting was not exactly subtle, though he was following his every move via their link.

Though the clouds blocked out most of the light from the stars and the moon, Loivissa had no trouble seeing with her elven vision. That was why she spotted the cloaked figure at the end of the alley far sooner than he spotted her, and her silenced steps made sure that he was not alerted of her presence before she was almost directly in front of him, at which point, the man jumped back in shock and reached for a concealed weapon at his waist, before he finally recognized her.

"Do not scare me like that! I was this close to trying to stab you!", the upset fence exclaimed as Loivissa lowered her hood from her face.

"You would not have succeeded", she simply objected, before she went straight to business, "so, what is this life-important message that you needed to meet with me personally to deliver?"

"First, you ward me the very best you can, and then we can talk about what I have to say", the clearly nervous and fidgeting man countered.

"We are alone in this alley and can see every motion in the alley for hundreds of metres", Loivissa commented with a wave of her hand to emphasize her point.

"Ward first, then we can talk, or else, we do not talk at all", the fence continued to demand.

Sighing at his stubbornness, she nevertheless complied to his demands and began the extensive procedure of warding him with the very same wards that she herself had used every time she knew that she was going to battle.

"Alright, you now have better wards on your person than I have. Speak", Loivissa assured the paranoid fence.

With a final nervous glance around at their surroundings, the paranoid fence finally arrived at the very reason for both of them being here, as he started to clearly nervously say, "I am sure that you know about all of the fences shutting down. Heh, if you did not, then you would never have found me and we would never even be here tonight".

"Get to the point already", Loivissa growled at his postponing the real issues.

"Right, ehm, as I was saying, the fences are not actually shutting down, they are just- ugh", were his last words before Loivissa felt two objects tear their way through her own wards, as, what she now saw to be two crossbow bolts, flew just past her and then tore straight through the wards that she had placed on the fence with hardly any trouble whatsoever, before they finally stopped as they imbedded themselves into his throat and chest respectively.

The reflex to grab the injured fence and seek cover behind a small wooden basket overwhelmed any other thought in Loivissa's head, but to her surprise, no more bolts were fired in their direction. Despite what many believed, a bolt wound did not usually kill its victim immediately, unless it hit the heart or head, and even if it hit an artery, magic would still be able to heal the victim quickly enough to allow them to live, which was why Loivissa was confident that she could still save her snitch and get whatever information he was tried to be killed for disclosing.

"Lay still, I will heal you", Loivissa tried to calm the now shaking and frothing fence in her arms.

He appeared to regain his senses just long enough for him to grab unto her cloak and drag her face millimetres away from his own, as he, with froth still spitting out from his mouth, said, "no, poison, too late! Have to listen- she- the devil lady is here- building army- have to warn-", but whatever else he had meant to say was lost forever as he went limp in Loivissa's very arms, still staring right into her eyes with frightened and yet determined eyes.

_No, no, no, no_, Loivissa chanted as she closed the eyes of the now dead human in her arms, before her gaze was involuntarily drawn to the two bolts that were protruding from his body, and in an act that she did not fully understand herself, she took hold of one of them, the one in his chest, and pulled it out of him and stored it in her belt, before she let the body drop to the cold ground.

She did not know what had compelled her to do as she had done, though she had a faint idea that it might be the wish to avenge the fence by stabbing his assassin with his own bolt, but she did realize the danger that she was placing herself in as she scrambled out from her cover and began to quickly ascend the adjacent buildings, as the bolts had seemed to emanate from somewhere higher up.

Strangely enough, not a single bolt was fired against her from the moment when she exited her cover and until she stood upon the roof tiles of one of the buildings in Teirm, but as she surveyed her surroundings for any sign of enemies, she only just managed to spot a high dark figure with an equally dark cloak leaping down from a rooftop some distance away.

_It could be a trap_, Adûn warned her as she began her sprint across the roof tiles.

_I have to take the chance to figure out what is going on_, Loivissa argued as she jumped across a chasm between two houses.

_Alright, but I have already alerted the night guards to your peril_, Adûn relented, knowing after five centuries of being bonded when she could and could not be persuaded, _just…be careful_.

_Thank you, I will_, Loivissa replied as she finally reached the spot where the figure had disappeared.

No dark figure could be seen on the entirely empty streets of Teirm, and a pushed over basket was the only clue to what direction the figure had disappeared to from there, so, without wasting many other thoughts, Loivissa jumped down from the roofs and followed after her fleeing prey.

Because the alley that she now went into ran in a straight line for quite a while without any side-alleys to turn to, Loivissa managed to catch a glimpse of the assassin as the dark figure went into the first left side-alley that came, though he or she appeared to have tossed his or hers cloak away at some point during his or hers flight.

_Perhaps he or she is shedding his or hers disguise in favour of another_, Adûn proposed as she ran down the alley with all of her elven speed behind her.

_Then I have to catch the culprit before I completely lose sight of him_, Loivissa acknowledged her dragon's reasoning.

As she turned left at the same alley as the assassin had, she managed to catch a glimpse of a small dark-clad foot disappearing around a corner some distance away. It was as if whoever she was chasing also had elven speed to match hers, as she never seemed to be able to catch up with the perpetrator.

The cycle of catch continued yet again when Loivissa a little bit later rounded yet another corner in time to see a billowing black cloak disappear into a dark alley, which Loivissa just so happened to know from experience was a dead-end with no possible way of climbing the walls before she would arrive to catch him or her.

_I have got you now_, Loivissa mused almost happily as she rounded this one last corner in her chase, only to come face to face with a completely empty alley that ended abruptly in a solid brick wall. No doors or windows faced into this alley, so it was impossible for the assassin to have disappeared through one of those, and yet, he or she had somehow managed to do so anyway.

How the assassin had managed to disappear completely was anyone's guess, as there certainly would not have been enough time to scale the walls, and Loivissa had been certain that she had seen a black cloak disappear into here.

_Wait, you saw a cloak go into here!_, Adûn suddenly exclaimed within her head.

_Yes, so?_, Loivissa asked, as she could not connect the dots that Adûn apparently had managed to connect.

_In your first sighting of the assassin, it was a high dark person with a cloak, but the next one had no cloak, then the next time, you saw a small dark foot that would not have fitted a high person very well, while in this last sighting, the figure suddenly had a cloak again_, Adûn summarized her sightings.

_Meaning that there were multiple figures!_, Loivissa realized, _but then that would mean that they wanted me to follow them here, only to then leave me alone, but why go through so much trouble for nothing?_

…_They wanted to draw you far away from where it happened!_, Adûn was once again the first to figure it out, _I am alerting the night guards to get there as quickly as possible._

_And away from the only physical evidence that something happened!_, Loivissa realized a moment later, as she immediately turned around and started sprinting back the same way that she had come, leaving the issues of just how the figures managed to disappear during the chase for a later time.

As it turned out, she really had travelled quite far across Teirm, and when she finally arrived back at the scene of where the fence had died in her very arms, it was only to discover the night guards mulling around there with seemingly no clue as to why they were there.

A quick questioning of the guards and an investigation of the crime scene revealed that the body had been gone when the guards had arrived, along with the bloodstains on the walls that had come the moment that the bolts had hit the now dead fence.

To her surprise, none of his blood had been spilled on her when she had held him, and if any had landed on the ground, then that was gone too. All evidence of there even being a crime had disappeared without a trace, and without a body, bloodstains or other evidence to prove that something had actually happened, the Teirm city guards principally refused to invest manpower into the matter.

_Whoever she is, she is good_, Loivissa told Adûn as they departed Teirm early into the morning, before the sun had even risen, _she has managed to kill her leak without a single trace and simultaneously make the city guards question my word in future cases because of this_.

_Whoever she is, she is not good enough_, Adûn answered smugly.

_How so? A man, our only lead, died and no one believes that it even happened_, Loivissa questioned.

_She did not count on you taking that bolt with you during your chase_, Adûn said with pride in his voice, _that little bolt in your belt proves that something indeed happened_.

_You are right!_, Loivissa exclaimed and sent a wave of joy through their bond, _when we get back to Ilirea, I can get this analysed to determine just how it managed to penetrate my most powerful wards with ease and just what exactly it did to that man to make him die as quickly as he did_.

Though they had lost their primary source of information as to what was going on, they now at least had some way of making progress. It was this comforting thought that helped Loivissa fall asleep atop Adûn, just as the sun's rays peaked over the horizon ahead of them.

* * *

Ooooh, scary, wonder what will happen next(I currently feel like the annoying kid in class that is always shouting "I know! I know!" even when not asked a question).


	2. The world ahead

And so we come to Before Friday Thursday(stop laughing right now)

Despite a wish to see what the rest of the ADRCSI(not official name) are doing, but you will have to wait a bit for that(1 chapter), as we first need to see what has happened to our other protagonist since the last story.

* * *

**The world ahead**

**Mercury POV(late winter, 293 AA)  
**Mercury was standing solitarily in front of the Bone Throne in what used to be the royal palace of Damocles. He was studying the throne one last time, remembering the nooks and crannies that it had had during his time on it.

He had never really liked sitting on it in the first place, and not just because the white ivory seat was highly uncomfortable to sit in for any extended period of time, but also because the very idea of sitting on a throne had never really been one that suited him.

In fact, his dislike of spending overly much time on the throne had garnered him the moniker 'the running king' during his first decades as king, though that might have also been partly because he had spent most of his first three decades on the throne running from one crisis to the next.

To say that his first decade of running the Kingdom of Damocles had been a relaxing task would have been the understatement of understatements, and although the troubles had calmed down severely after that first decade, it had had to take another two decades before he could really say that his kingdom had been stable.

After his kingdom had been properly stabilized, Mercury had had to wait for the Empire's spies to be recalled, before he could properly get room to begin the changes that he had envisioned, and there had been a lot.

The most important of them had been the formation of the Silver Wave Alliance, or just the Alliance, as everyone simply called it, which had taken almost five centuries of negotiating treaties with individual dökkálfar city states in order to form the foundation of the Alliance on the 100th anniversary of the fall of the Ra'zac Empire.

The formation of the Alliance had been the starting block for everything that had happened during the 293 years since then, and the event had even formed the baseline of the new year-system that was now used by all Alliance members, with the years dated as either Before Alliance, BA, or After Alliance, AA.

The common timeline had been the first change to unify the individual countries of the Alliance, but others had soon followed. Mercury had for example sponsored the development of a new standardized distance measuring unit that would be universally constant no matter where in the world you went.

In the end, the unit had been defined as the 50.000.000th fraction of the total circumference of the globe, which had been quite the arduous task to calculate, as it had involved having to measure a fraction of the globe's circumference at several key points on both the continent of Damocles and Alalëa and then take the average value of those measurements in order to decrease the room for error.

Similar changes from their previous definition to a definition based on a natural universal constant to the units of time, pressure, temperature, energy and weight had come later on, but the change to distance measurement had very much been the trial for whether such changes could and should be done at all.

"Reminiscing on how comfortable it was to sit on one last time?", the voice of his current aide de camp, Ilumëo Uluth, said as she appeared from the shadows with Mercury's pet at her left side and a leather inbound folder in her right hand.

Ilumëo was the ninth generation aide de camp after Naina, who had passed away centuries ago. She was a dökkálfar woman in her mid-fifties, which marked her as just about to exit what to dökkálfar women were the prime of their life.

Her hair was a long mass of silver that was braided into one long braid, which hung down her right front shoulder. Her face was streamlined and without any visible flaws to mare it, with eyes the colour of jade, a body that was taller than most male dökkálfar's, and hidden underneath the green silk garments that covered her body was a leather armour that hid multiple daggers, poisons, antidotes and many other things.

She had been his aide de camp for the last two centuries, a task which she had inherited when her grandfather had passed away and her mother had had to leave her job as the aide de camp in order to take up his job of running the family and preparing the next generation.

Since the Uluth family had been the aide de camps for Mercury for four centuries now, they had developed a system that had been passed from one generation to the next to ensure that the next aide de camp was ready when one had to retire or died, though the latter had only occurred once during the span of those four centuries.

The previous aide de camp would keep the family in line as the family matriarch or patriarch, and prepare who she or he believed to be the best candidate among the grandchildren to eventually take over the job that their own parent, or uncle or aunt, was currently holding.

It was not always so, but most of the time, a candidate that was a child of the current aide de camp was chosen, unless of course the children of the aide de camp were not qualified for the job, at which point, one of their cousins would be chosen instead.

The current aide de camp would then follow Mercury around wherever he went and do whatever he required of them. It was a stressful job that required long hours and had very little vacation, which was why most children of the aide de camp were primarily raised by their grandparents.

As far as Mercury knew, Ilumëo herself had barely known her own mother for the first half of her lifespan, as she had primarily been raised by her maternal grandparents while her mother was away as his aide de camp, and since her father had been an active officer in the First Sword, he had been away just as often.

It was literally a part of the job description that you only had a limited amount of time to find a spouse and spend time with any children that you might have, which was why most of Mercury's aides found their future spouses within the military.

Mercury knew for a fact that Ilumëo had an on-going affair with one of his Varangian guards, and aside from getting a laugh out of scaring the daylight out of him when he had once stumbled in on them, he had not interfered any further in the relationship. Who his aide chose to see romantically was her choice, as long as it did not impede upon her duties.

Still, despite the long hours and the lack of time to spend with their own children, all of the Uluth family children always competed like crazy to become the next aide de camp, as that was the position from which all of their family's power and influence flowed from. And that was a lot of influence and power.

Through him, the Uluth family had become more powerful than any archduke alive, except for Mercury himself of course, as he had managed to land all of the children that had not become his aide de camp into important positions all throughout the Alliance.

But as an assurance to make sure that the family would not forget who it was that provided them with everything, Mercury had never once granted any of them lordships or other titles that could give them power of their own.

All Uluth children also had free access to the Isenberg Academy, which was the most prestigious school in the entire Alliance, and which was owned and had been built by Mercury especially to give the Uluth children the best available education.

It had been built on a small previously uninhabited rock island not far from The Capital, which now housed the school and all of the students, the staff that taught the students, the people that kept the grounds and the guards that provided security for everyone.

"I have not sat on it for almost three centuries now, but I can still imagine its hard edge as if it was only yesterday", Mercury finally responded to her inquiry.

It was true, he had given up the throne of Damocles shortly after the Alliance had been formed, as it had been a requirement in order for him to get the job that he needed; lord commander of ALL Alliance forces. In short, whenever something had anything to do with the military or required the use of military units, it fell under Mercury's jurisdiction.

If a province was facing serious unrest, Mercury had the privilege of taking charge of everything that went on within that province, effectively making him its de facto ruler until the unrest had been quelled. Nothing short of a 5/6 agreed upon Tribunal vote could countermand his orders in military affairs.

The Tribunal was the collective assembly of leaders from all provinces that decided on the overall decisions and law-making of the entire Alliance. The members from each province were distributed according to population of that province, and they were up for election at least every decade.

Of course, a new election could be announced before that, but from the moment that you announced it, at least a year had to pass in order to give all the candidates that wanted to run for their province, enough time to prepare their election campaigns.

"I understand", Ilumëo responded, "you just wanted to see it one last time before we left".

As she said the last bit, the pet at her side, which was actually a black panther named Mushu, rubbed his head affectionately on her left leg as it purred. Mushu might have originally been Mercury's pet, but if the cat was to decide here and now on which master it preferred, Mercury figured that it would chose Ilumëo.

Not that Mushu would ever attack himself, as that had only happened the one time when they had met inside the jungles of the Alliance province of Dimholt, and considering that Mercury had mentally conquered Mushu and forced the cat to obey him after it had tried to maul him 15 years ago, he doubted very much that it would try it again, not that Mushu would have more of a chance this time around.

"Have everything been prepared for our departure?", Mercury asked just as Mushu got bored with not receiving any attention from Ilumëo and decided to hop up on the throne, where he curled into a furry ball and purred as Mercury scratched him behind his ears.

"Yes, everything should have been taken care of", Ilumëo responded as she looked inside the folder in her hands, "I have also made sure to get an anniversary gift for your wife this year".

"What did I give her this time?", Mercury asked absentmindedly as he continued to pet his panthers.

"A necklace crafted from the gold of your mines in The Northern Wastes and with pearls from the Ivory Sea imbedded in it", Ilumëo answered evenly.

The Northern Wastes had, as a province, been given to Mercury after his first five decades of being the lord commander, in what was supposed to be an insult, as rewarding him with the archduchy of The Northern Wastes had not really seemed to them like a fair trade for his service, but it had since turned to his advantage.

As his first act as the archduke of the province, Mercury had laid claim to one of the flat mountaintops that dotted the inland, which reached above even the skies, and had since had a fortress built upon that flat mountaintop, which was commonly referred to as Winter's Crown, partly because that on the rare days without any skies blocking the view up the mountain, the walls of the fortress actually made it look like the mountain had been crowned.

"Do you think that she suspects that it has been you, and your predecessor, that has given her the presents since the day that we got married?", Mercury asked as he let his hand run along the smooth white ivory of the Bone Throne's armrest.

"She has sent me her thanks for the last nine years, so yeah, I believe that she does", Ilumëo responded.

Mercury had gotten married 45 years ago, though the marriage had not exactly been one founded on love or something like that. The marriage had been a part of a treaty between the Alliance and his wife's country, which she just so happened to be the princess of.

In short, the treaty had stated that in exchange for joining the Alliance as a fully-fledged member and providing support and supplies for its armies and navies, the Alliance would have to help the country finally win against its neighbouring country, and long-time nemesis, along with promising to have the Alliance's lord commander, also known as Mercury Iridium, marry the king's eldest daughter in what the king had no doubt hoped would be a beneficial tie to power that would spawn him some grandchildren in powerful positions.

Given that his wife had been 16 at the time, still very much a child in Mercury's eyes, combined with the fact that Mercury did not want any children for multiple reasons, one of which was that it was proven by the annals of history that it was the impatient children of powerful men that most often screwed up their parents' plans and usurped them, the king had had to see that dream fail.

On the eve of their wedding night, Mercury had calmly but bluntly told his wife that he would provide her with an allowance each month, which she could do with what she wanted, and that as long as she did not interfere in his business or created a public spectacle, she was free to do whatever she wanted.

For two years, she had been the complacent pretty little princess that she had been raised to be, but after having been mostly neglected by him for two years, she had eventually begun to hate Mercury and had even begun hiring assassins to try and have him killed.

Mercury had of course stopped every attempt on his life, but had only punished her actions by withholding a part of her allowance for the next month. To her, it had seemed like nothing more than a slap on the wrists, which had seemingly infuriated her even more and prompted her to try again not a month afterwards.

Mercury believed the first attempts to take his life had actually been genuine by his wife, but the later ones had seemed more like cries for attention, which Mercury had continued to deny her by continuing his policy of doing nothing more than taking a cut of her allowance for the next month.

After about two decades of this, his wife's hate had eventually turned to apathy and she had stopped trying to kill him, or caring about him in the least for that matter. When this had happened, Mercury had lost the final bit of interest in her as well, as her earlier antics had at least amused him somewhat, but it had all been a part of his plan to make sure that no romantic feelings could ever come between them, and it had worked to perfection.

Mercury had never been good with love, that much had been made painfully obvious to him during his life, even from before he had arrived in Alagaësia. There had been a reason why he had been single when Eragon had come for him.

Then there had been the Elva affair, which had not exactly ended on the best of terms, what with the two of them trying to kill the other for several decades, which only ended when Mercury was the one that succeeded in doing so.

Loivissa's later banishment…had been a rash decision, but to be fair, at the time, he would have banished just about anyone. Naina had been lucky that she had been safely tucked away in The Capital until he had calmed down.

Still, if Loivissa had not been banished, it would have been unlikely that Mercury would have realized what needed to be done, and had found the strength that desperation gave, to push all obstacles on his way aside in order to realize his dreams.

"Also, another major case of money fraud has crippled the Targan province", his aide tore him out of his musings by saying, "the Tribunal are requesting to lease your expert on the matter. Should I inform Teivan that he should set sail for Targan?"

"Yes, and if he makes a fuss about always having to travel all across the Alliance for extended periods of time again, then remind him that he should just shallow his pride and get a proper apprentice to send in his stead", Mercury agreed with her proposal.

Teivan was Mercury's expert on counterfeiting, who was so successful in cracking down on others that he was quite literally often booked several years in advance by individual clients, unless of course Mercury yanked his chain and told him to go somewhere else immediately.

He had originally been a quite successful counterfeiter himself, but had changed sides when Mercury had caught him and offered him more money than he had made by counterfeiting if he would just put his skills to work for him instead.

"By the way, how is your cousin doing in her new home?", Mercury said as the thought crossed his mind.

"She is well now, though the locals were a bit hostile to her when she arrived", Ilumëo answered as she continued to scribble down notes regarding the counterfeit case in her folder, "she says that she will be ready to receive guests in the very near future".

"Good to know", Mercury murmured as he began heading out of the throne room with Mushu springing from the throne to follow him at his side, "that should be all before we depart, should it not?"

"Actually, Earl Atanalcar has sent a request to run for office in the next Tribunal election", Ilumëo read off of her list.

"Hmm, Atanalcar eh? I suppose that it could be beneficial to have him in the Tribunal, so you can tell him that he has my permission, but remind him that I still have the vial with me", Mercury responded thoughtfully.

"Should I also make him aware that his eldest child, and only son, is still studying at Isenberg?", Ilumëo asked without much care for what that actually meant.

"No, he already knows of it perfectly well, so there should be no need", Mercury waved it off.

After that, the duo continued to head out of the palace and down to the docks, where Mercury's ship was anchored. It was the same ship that he had sailed out with when he had first left Alagaësia's shores 470 years ago.

Three other smaller warships lay anchored next to it, which would serve as his escort units, and which were all manned and operated by members of his Varangian Guard. The Varangian Guard had come a long way from back when it had just been 40 men assigned to guard him on foot.

As Mercury walked across the plank to his ship, he let his gaze fall back on The Capital one last time. Its massive onyx outer ring-wall, the pipes beneath them that would flood any besiegers with burning oil, the many zigzagging roads that traversed the steep climb up from the docks and to the portcullises in the wall and finally, he let his gaze shift to the docks, which were brimming with activity, as usual.

Warships were being loaded, prepared or built in dry-docks, their supply-ship counterparts were being readied to carry heavy loads for months of travel on sea and in the civilian portion of the docks, Mercury knew that it was not far different from this portion that was reserved for military vessels.

After all, The Capital was the official seat of the Tribunal, which meant that though the city could never have been called small in all the time that Mercury had known it, its population had still managed to increase many-fold since he had first laid eyes on it, which the city had only accomplished due to techniques about how to build higher and stronger multiple-stories houses that had been assimilated from one of the Alliance's other provinces.

"Farewell, city of towers", Mercury nodded towards the city before he finally walked aboard his ship.

* * *

And there we have a part(a very small part) of what he has done for the 400 years.


	3. And there are many paths to thread

Happy Mammoth Monday!

I am so thrilled today, because I just finished a challenge from my older brother, but so as to not bore you with the specifics, I will leave those at the end.

Enjoy!

* * *

**And there are many paths to thread**

**Loivissa POV  
**It had been almost a month since the incident in Teirm and Loivissa had come no closer to uncovering just who She was or what it was that She was doing with the criminals of the Empire. There was something at large, something big, and it infuriated Loivissa that she could not figure out what it was.

Upon her return to the dragon rider headquarters in Ilirea, she had immediately handed the bolt over to get it properly examined by some of the dragon riders that were more specialised in such fields, but they had had a lot of other stuff to do as well, so because her case was technically still a low priority, she had had to wait in line for the results.

"How can it be more important for them to figure out the nature of some artefact from Galbatorix's time than to figure out how a crossbow bolt from the present managed to cut clean through all of my wards, twice in a row!", Loivissa exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Shouting about it will not make them do it any quicker, you know", the wise-crack urgal dragon rider named Dalarus, who sat at the desk opposite of hers, said, "besides, it is not you who have to figure out why a quarter of Ilirea's herds have gone missing".

"How did it come to this; dragon riders investigating missing criminals, ancient artefacts and missing herds", Loivissa moaned and buried her head beneath her arms on her desk, "do you remember the time when we actually did something to help people?"

"We are helping people", one of the new riders in the office countered, "solving their everyday problems is just as important to them as solving the international crisis's are to the monarchs".

"You only say that because you have never experienced it yourself, rookie", Dalarus argued, "if you had been an active dragon rider during the succession crisis that occurred the last time the dwarves had to elect a new king, then your words might have carried more weight. Remember that assignment, Loivissa?"

"How could I not?", Loivissa said, "three clans united behind one illegitimate king and only five of the other ten stood against them. It was fortunate that the dragon riders were able to intervene in time to prevent them from going to war with each other".

"Exactly!", Dalarus exclaimed and held his papers up for the both of them to see, "and now they have us doing guard work. GUARD work! How in all of Alagaësia could it ever fall into anyone's mind that dragon riders should be used to find cattle?"

_Finding cattle is easy, my dear rider. It is making them stop runningthat is the hard bit_, Dalarus's dragoness butted in for all to hear.

"I still maintain that we are helping people this way, and is helping people not what the dragon riders are all about?", the rookie defended his statement.

"I give up", Dalarus said exasperated.

Loivissa giggled at her deskmate's antics. It was nice to once in a while not be too serious about her job and let her mind wander more freely, though it could not wander too far, or it might begin making comparisons, even minute ones, between her current circumstances and Him.

Stars, she hated not being able to get anything done. Her now dead informant had been her only real lead in the case, and even his death was still being denied by the Teirm city guards. No body, no blood and no other witnesses meant that it never happened.

Except that it did, and on her watch too! She had been played from the very get-go, foolishly lured to follow distractions halfway across Teirm while the body had been removed and the scene picked clean of any evidence.

_You are too hard on yourself, dear_, Adûn comforted her by saying, _there was no way that you could have known that they had that many imposters spread out to lead you on a wild goose chase. If anything, the blame is equally mine, if not more, as I should have called the changes sooner._

_I hardly noticed them at all_, Loivissa argued, _how could I not? They were so obvious!_

_Everything is more obvious in hindsight, dear_, Adûn commented, _learn from it and take it into consideration when you face off against them next time_.

"If that ever happens again…", Loivissa mumbled out loud.

"What was that?", Dalarus asked from his desk, "is there ANYTHING that you need help with?"

"No, there is nothing for me to do but wait some more", Loivissa responded dejectedly

His offer to help might have been a little more flattering if not for the fact that Loivissa had spent the last week hearing him complain about having to find the missing herds. Not that she thought that she had been much better, considering that she had pretty much spent the last month going over what little reports that she had managed to gather and had tried to get in touch with another known fence that had supposedly suddenly gone legit.

No one had wanted to help her, and more than half had even ignored all of Loivissa's attempts to contact them. The official authorities might not believe that something had happened, but it seemed that the entire underworld knew of it, and now they also knew that not even the dragon riders could protect them if they tattled.

"Hey, want to break up for lunch?", Dalarus asked her.

"It is not even noon yet", Loivissa simply commented.

"So? Have you got anything better to do?", Dalarus asked and did not even wait for her answer as he grabbed his hat from its place on the desk and went out towards the cafeteria.

Since Loivissa did not really have anything better to do, she shrugged and followed him shortly afterwards, with only a half-hearted lecture by the new kid about how they did not have a break yet. It was better than trying to make yet another miniature castle out of the things on her desk.

"…So, I had one dwarf by the beard and the other lifted up from his foot, and then our dear leader, Lifaen, comes in, sees the situation and immediately demands that I put both clan chiefs back down on their feet", Dalarus shared a story as they picked at their lunch in the half-empty cafeteria.

He still had his hat on, as hideous and pompous as it was, but he had said that it had been the last gift that he had ever received from his late mortal mate, so he only ever took it off during the tiresome time spent inside the warmer climate of the office.

Personally, Loivissa believed that his late mate had given it to him as some sort of punishment, something that was generally agreed upon by the others in headquarters, but no one had had the heart to tell him that it looked utterly ridiculous on him.

"Liar, I was right behind Lifaen, remember?", Loivissa called him on it but laughed nonetheless, "you just stood in the middle and prevented the two chiefs from clawing at each other".

"Right, I forgot that you were there as well", Dalarus mumbled, "just do not tell anyone else, okay? It is way too good a story to ruin with something as fickle and boring as the truth".

Loivissa remembered a time when He had said something similar about a bard's tale and the truth behind it, back in a simpler time when her heart had not been utterly broken by Him and her dreams of children had not been cut short by the shade yet.

"Are you alright?", Dalarus asked her in a concerned voice, "you suddenly looked so…different, that I almost did not recognize you".

"Yeah, you just…reminded me of something that I would like to forget", Loivissa responded as she forced the thoughts out of her head.

"It sure did not seem like a sad memory", Dalarus commented.

"It is not", Loivissa agreed, "but the fact that it is not, only makes the later ones that much more painful".

"Oh…want to talk about it?", Dalarus offered in a concerned voice.

"No", Loivissa left no room to argue on that point. If she could forget that He had ever existed, then so be it.

An awkward silence descended upon the two, as neither knew how to go on from there. Loivissa picked at her salad, while Dalarus pretended that the surface of the table was very interesting. It was not.

"Wow, who died?", Shaef, one of the human dragon riders that analysed things, said, as he suddenly appeared beside the table.

"No one", Loivissa murmured, still a little touchy about the implication that He might have died.

He could be many things; a coldblooded traitorous backstabbing deceiving manipulative bastard was just one of them, but if there was one thing that she knew about Him, then that was that He was alive. She could simply not imagine Him being anything but alive.

"…Okay then", Shaef said a little uneasily, clearly picking up on the foul mood that she was exuding, "well, I did not spend the last 15 minutes tracking you down just to get depressed, so here is the first report regarding that crossbow bolt that you brought in", as he said the last bit, he put down a stack of papers easily as thick as Loivissa's thigh.

"You finally finished?!", Loivissa exclaimed happily, as she could finally get somewhere with her case now, before a thought struck her as she examined the thick stack of papers, "wait, what do you mean 'the first report'?"

"Exactly what I said; that there will be more", Shaef said, once again somehow cheerful, as he pulled a chair from a nearby table and sat at the side of their table, "you should know that that little bolt that you brought in, not only has the entire department mystified, but have also kind of made us forget the artefact from Galbatorix that we were supposed to be working on".

"YOU ditched a prioritized assignment?", Dalarus questioned with disbelief, "how did that even happen?"

"Well, it is actually an interesting story", Shaef said excitedly as he stole a carrot from Loivissa's plate and started to chew on it, "you see, about a week ago, one of my colleagues needed a break from trying and failing to study the artefact, so he instead picked your bolt up because he figured that that one would be an easy job to get his mind off of the artefact.

As it turned out, the bolt was far more interesting, and to make a long story short, almost the entire department soon forgot all about the artefact and decided to focus their efforts on the bolt instead, though we would very much appreciate it if you did not tell Lifaen that".

"Sure, our lips are sealed, but what about the bolt has gotten you so excited?", Loivissa questioned curiously.

"Oh, where to begin?", Shaef said exasperated, "the coating, the craftsmanship of the bolt itself or the reason behind its ability to penetrate wards with ease?"

"How about you start with how it penetrated my wards, twice in a row", Loivissa suggested, as she knew that Shaef could go on forever if you did not guide him.

"Yes! That is because of a small purple crystal imbedded in the core of the bolt's tip", Shaef said excitedly, "the crystal, oh the marvel of it, is something that I have never before seen. Its complexity, its simplicity, its beauty!"

"Do you know how it works and how we can protect ourselves against it or not?", Dalarus interrupted.

"…Well, no, and not even close to it", Shaef said visibly less excited, "every time we try to use magic to find out what exactly it is and how it was made, it sparks and dispels the magic. We think that it was made specifically, so that it would be impossible to do any magic to it upon its creation, and we are quite frankly afraid of what might happen if we continue to try and drain it of all of its power. It might dissolve and leave us with nothing but dust. That would be such a terrible waste!"

"Do you have any idea of who could have made it?", Dalarus asked slowly and carefully, like trying to calm a child throwing a tantrum.

"The Church of Tosk", Loivissa answered before anyone else could.

"Who's church?", both males said in unison, as they looked at her in confusion.

"Tosk's, you know, the old Helgrind clergy that existed back during Galbatorix's time", Loivissa explained, "your description of the crystal made me remember a tale that my father once told me about having encountered similar crystals down in the tunnels under Dras Leona, but the knowledge to fabricate such dark magic was presumed lost when the clergy was vanquished".

"Well, apparently, it was not", Dalarus said thoughtfully, "could it be that some of them survived and are now starting up trouble again?"

"Perhaps, but it could also just be that someone found one of their scriptures that detailed how they made them", Loivissa murmured thoughtfully, "what were the other things that you found out about the bolt?"

"Well, for starters, it has been crafted with the utmost of precision in mind", Shaef said as he ran his finger across the surface of the table, like he was touching the bolt right now, "you know the standard crossbow bolts from the Empire's army? Yeah, in comparison with that one, they might as well have been cut from an uneven branch. It does not match any of the bolts from the big bolt-makers in the Empire, so I have to guess that it was a custom job. It certainly could not have been cheap, so whoever fired it at you must have a lot of excess gold if they are willing to use so much on just making the bolt, and that is not even taking into account what must have gone into getting a hold of the crystal or the myriad of poisons on it".

"Poisons, what poisons?", Loivissa demanded to know.

"So far, we have found traces of five different poisons that were meant to kill the target, some of them slowly, others, almost instantly, and others that were largely immune to magic healing. I will tell you this; whoever wanted your guy dead, REALLY wanted him dead", Shaef said with a mix of awe and nervousness, "they even added other poisons to the coating that were not even meant to kill, but to paralyse the victim, and then there was an odd one that made the blood coagulate insanely fast, like they wanted to stop him from bleeding out".

"That must have been why there was no blood on me!", Loivissa exclaimed, "do you have a list of all the different poisons that you have found?"

"It is all in the report, though additions may come later on", Shaef said as he gestured to the ludicrously thick stack of papers, before something else caught his attention, "if you two would excuse for a moment, I think that I just spotted the department chief. She has been finding ways to avoid me for ages now, but if I can corner her here, then she has to listen to my proposal about increasing our budget".

And just as fast as he had come, Shaef vanished. Loivissa had always loved Shaef, though only as one would love a funny quirky younger sibling. Despite his centuries of life, he had somehow still managed to retain a childish youth and vitality, although it was mostly only when it came to finding out how things worked.

His dragon was a fiery red male that went by the name Red, which had according to rumours been because of a lost bet between the two back when Red had still been a hatchling. What Shaef lacked in common sense, Red made up for in spades, enough so in fact that he was considered dull even by the ancient dragons that mostly spent the days sleeping and brooding.

"It is always an experience to talk to him", Dalarus commented and Loivissa could do nothing but agree with his statement, before he followed it up with a question, "so, you do not think that it is the clergy reborn?"

"It might be", Loivissa admitted, "but someone once told me to consider things from all sides before taking such a decision. It could after all just be someone that found the instructions on how to make the crystals".

"And when he mentioned that whoever fired it, they had to be insanely rich?", Dalarus inquired, "you did not seem all that surprised at that?"

"If what I have learned so far is correct, then there is a She out there that has managed to wring almost the entire underworld around her pinky. Of course that person would be insanely rich, just think about the amount of gold that flows in those circles".

"Yeah, you are right", Dalarus murmured, "but if the bolt was a custom job, then it should be possible to match it to a maker, and from there on, you can track down its buyer".

"I thought about something along the same lines", Loivissa agreed, "but tracking down a single bolt-maker across the entire expanse of the Empire will take a lot of time and effort, and if She get any news of what I am attempting to do, then She might just make him disappear like She did with my snitch".

"Yeah, who knows how many people have just vanished because they got in her way?", Dalarus mused, "it was lucky that you managed to find this one before he could disappear completely as well…what is it now?"

"It is something that I have been wondering about since I got back from Teirm", Loivissa answered thoughtfully, as she folded her hands under her chin, "why was I spared back then? Do not get me wrong, I am glad that I was, but it is the why that puzzles me. I mean, if She had just had me killed along with the snitch and then hid my body, then there would have been no need for that goose chase across Teirm to distract me from the body and we would never have found the bolt in the first place".

"That one is easy", Dalarus said half chuckling, "if She had had you, a dragon rider, killed, then Her entire organization would have been the focal point for all dragon riders' wrath. We would have invested countless resources on hunting down this new threat, and if anything that you have told me about what is happening is true, then I very much doubt that She would have wanted the attention that killing you would have attracted. Alive, you are one suspicious dragon rider with limited support from the order, but if you were dead, then there would have been an entire order hell-bent on bringing Her entire organization to justice".

"I never thought about it like that", Loivissa mumbled, "but I suppose that you have a point".

"I always do", Dalarus said cockily.

"Oh really?", Loivissa picked up, "then what point does your missing herds have?"

"Arh, but those are all a part of a secret conspiracy that has as its goal to destroy the dragon rider order as we know it", Dalarus answered with a completely straight face, for about five seconds before both of them burst into laughter.

"What are you two laughing so hard about?", Gared, another dwarven dragon rider asked, as he approached their table with a plate of lunch.

"Nothing, you had to have been here from the start to get it", Loivissa said as she finally began to stop laughing.

"A shame, I could use it right now", he said as he pulled up a chair meant for dwarves and joined them at the table, "you have no idea how boring these past six months have been".

"Yeah, you have been on patrol duty since last spring, have you not?", Dalarus remembered.

"And will continue to be so until next year's spring", Gared confirmed as he violently chewed on a chicken wing, "I mean, no one even died when Ghan got drunk and burned down that village, but the boss still made me not only repair all of their houses, manually, but also had to punish me by putting me on this patrol duty for two whole years! It is not even like back in the good old days when there was always some bandit group or another that needed to be stopped. There has been zero activity for years now".

"I know, I am trying to figure out why that is", Loivissa said with emphasis on the I, before she stood, took her plate in one hand and the heavy report in the other and said, "now, if you two would excuse me, I have a report to read through, and I doubt that it will be a quick one".

Loivissa soon after returned to her desk and started going through the thick report. As she had predicted, it was not exactly light reading, and she had to stop numerous times just to relieve her eyes from the strain that reading through technical facts and test after test put on them.

As Shaef had said, they had really tried almost everything when they had tried to examine the crystal, but they had only gotten limited results at best. The part about the coating on the tip was far more rewarding, as it specified exactly what poisons that they had found and in what concentrations, along with what those poisons did in the specified concentrations".

When she had gotten almost halfway through the report, Loivissa began to continue to read the same two lines over and over again without ever getting any further. That was when she decided that she needed a break from reading it, so she put it aside and started to compile a list of how much manpower that she would need in order to track down the origin of the bolt before She could learn of her activities.

"Shadeslayer, a word", the voice of Lifaen, the leader of the western dragon riders and her boss, interrupted her thoughts. He, for some unknown reason, had never stopped referring to her as Shadeslayer.

"Lifaen, how convenient, as I was just about to come looking for you", Loivissa turned around to see the elven dragon rider, "you see, I have hit a major breakthrough in my case, but I need more manpower for a week or two in order to solve it".

"That can wait", Lifaen brushed her request off without any concern, "you are hereby relieved from your current case and put on emissary duty for the diplomatic meeting next month instead".

"What!?", Loivissa exclaimed, "but you cannot! I have FINALLY gotten somewhere with this case, and I promise you that it is bigger than we ever imagined it to be, and now you are asking me to drop it for an emissary mission?! What is the meeting about anyway, and why does it have to be me that goes?!"

"Calm yourself", Lifaen said sternly, "the request for you specifically came from both the Alagaësian delegates AND the Council, and I have to be there as well, I might add".

"What is the meeting about anyway?", Loivissa said as politely as she could muster at the moment, as she was still quite upset about possible losing her one chance at finding whoever fired that bolt.

"Mercury Iridium is the other side's diplomatic envoy", Lifaen revealed without preamble, "he is scheduled to be arriving by ship in Teirm in three weeks".

"He…is coming here…in person?", Loivissa murmured shocked.

* * *

Da da da DA! Heh, I bet many of you thought it would be longer before they met again.

So, about the challenge that I mentioned in the beginning. Anyone know Minecraft? Sure, you do! Anyway, while on a christmas holiday with my family, I started thinking that it would be cool to create an ice palace in survival mode in Minecraft(which is a lot of work, because not only do you have to calculate the light levels of torches and other illuminating things to make sure that no ice melts, but you also have to create each layer by making its mould and then allowing the water to freeze, before creating the next layer. And to top it all off, ice cannot freeze if there is even a single block anywhere directly above it, so you have to make sure that every layer is filled with the blocks that you want before beginning on the next).

Long story short, my brother found it amusing that I tried to create it and challenged me to give it a balcony, a tower sticking out from a corner and a lava moat(which was really annoying, because lava emits freakishly much light)...and now I am done with it!

Two floors(15 blocks tall, 25 long and 16 wide) with an attic on top(add another 10 blocks to the height) and a piston-powered ice-bridge that prevents any mobs from entering it(because you cannot make doors of ice ;D ).  
I know what you are thinking, and I agree that I should probably be more careful with challenges in the future...but that is just who I am. If I start on something, I WILL finish it(which is also the reason why I have a seven other major projects that are all vying for my scarce spare time, along with another 4850 pages of books that I need to read(it started at 6120, so I am getting there...)).

Anyway, see you again on Before Friday Thursday.


	4. Through shadow

Good Before Friday Thursday.

Anyone know of TVTropes? Well, I just found this story as a fanfic example of a sociopathethic hero, and I had to say that reading it was hilarious. After that, I skimmed through a few other pages and found it under AnyoneCanDie as well. If anyone ever notices more mentionings of it on other pages, please do pm me the topic, because if they are anything like those two, then I would love to read them.

...Anyway, I think that you will enjoy this one, so go ahead and read it!

* * *

**Through shadow**

**Loivissa POV(a month later)  
**He had been in Teirm for an entire week now, and His presence greatly unnerved Loivissa, who had since learned that a part of her duty as an emissary for the dragon riders consisted of making sure that He was protected and accounted for at all times.

So far, He had spent the week simply touring the city and enjoying banquets with the lord of Teirm. The commoners had become ecstatic upon learning of His presence in the city, and every time that He went out, a crowd would soon form, so that they could catch even just a glimpse of the man behind the legend.

They had not been disappointed, as He had not only strolled around with his real eyes clearly visible, but had also donned some new suit of armour that Loivissa had never seen before. It looked to be of a design that matched the one that He had once given her, with its steel plate that looked like it had been moulded directly upon His body and shone like it had been made from pure silver.

The strange insignia that He had once adopted as His own was engraved upon His chest, and from His shoulders, a dark blue cape with silver embroidery on it hung. A new, different, sword hung from His side, and from the looks of the ebony and ivory encrusted sheath, it sort of resembled a scimitar, and yet, it had distinct differences.

The crossguard of the sword resembled a wolf's head, with emeralds imbedded in it as its eyes and steel jaws with steel teeth going up along the early length of the blade, like the wolf was spitting out the blade itself from its maw.

The crowd had loved it all; His attire, His mystique, His aura of sheer power and confidence, and He had soaked up the attention like a bottomless well. What Loivissa had learned from this display was that this was not the same man that she had once known.

She had always thought that if she was to ever see Him again, then He would be like she remembered Him, with His old armour and a reforged version of His old sword at His back. This person had given up all of that, and who knew how much else?

"Are you doing okay, Shadeslayer?", Lifaen asked from beside her, as they stood as the sole occupants of the room that would play host to the actual meeting in less than an hour.

"Yeah, it is just; am I a bad person for expecting to see Him as only a shell of His former self?" , Loivissa questioned. Lifaen was among the few who knew what had actually happened back then, as she had had to make a detailed description of her journey to the dragon rider council, with him there as well, upon her return to Alagaësia.

"No, you are not", Lifaen assured her, "but I need to know whether your mind is here or somewhere else".

"It is here, sir", Loivissa confirmed with determination, "nothing will harm Him and He will not harm anyone else while I am still able to fight".

"It is good to know", Lifaen chuckled at her response, "though I would not worry about Mercury harming anyone if I were you. He is here with only a few men to discuss a diplomatic treaty, and I doubt that causing an international incident will help get it through".

"But He has not even told us what He wants yet!", Loivissa continued.

"Shadeslayer, if you cannot control your temper, then I will have to ask you to leave before the delegates arrive. They may have been the ones that requested that you specifically was to be here, as you have had far more experience with dealing with him than anyone else, but it will ultimately be I that decide whether you are here or not", Lifaen admonished her sternly.

"Yes…sir, it will not happen again", Loivissa conceded.

_Our leader is right_, Adûn privately agreed with Lifaen, _the delegates are counting on you to help them through these negotiations, so you have to be calm and collected. You have let him dominate your mind for too long now, and that has to stop_.

_I know, but it is hard to do as you ask_, Loivissa answered tiredly.

_Nothing worthwhile is ever easy_, Adûn commented wisely, _before Mercury's stay here ends, I want you to have worked things over with him. One way or the other, you have to move on from what happened_.

"The delegates are arriving", Lifaen informed her quietly.

True enough, not long after, the different delegates and their entourages from the various races of Alagaësia started trickling in to take their places around the oval table that had a seat reserved for Him at one of its ends.

Lord Torbin of Gilead, his aide and his two personal mage guards were there to represent the interests of the Empire. From the dwarves came the clanchief of Dûrgrimst Ingeitum, Hrothgar the third, along with five of his own guards, of which Loivissa knew that at least three were mages as well. The urgals simply sent a shaman from the Bolvek tribe as their representative, while the elves also simply used Vanir, their usual emissary, as their representative. The werecats had not sent a representative, and considering that He had apparently only requested to deal with the actual functioning nations of Alagaësia, no one had bothered to try very hard to add them to the meeting.

After a little while had passed and all of the delegations had taken their seats around the oval table, which just so happened to all be located around the other end of the table from where His seat had been reserved, so as to give the impression that they were one united front against the outsider, He and His small following decided to finally show.

He was the first to enter, now dressed in a far simpler blue tunic that had a belt with a silver clasp and which was made from a type of leather that Loivissa did not recognize, black leather pants and the golden signet ring with its 80 extraordinarily tiny sapphires spread out among six onyx circles that had as their centre, a mixed clump of only slightly larger rubies and grey moonstones.

He cast one look around the table at the representatives and their guards and advisors, before He smirked slightly and proceeded to push through the oak double doors. Padding behind Him in His shadow was that giant black cat-thing that always seemed to follow Him around wherever He went.

It always unnerved Loivissa to see it, as she could clearly and carefully see how this was not a creature that had been meant to be a pet. No, it was meant to kill, to hunt and to ambush its prey in the darkness.

"That beast is not participating in this meeting!", one of Lord Torbin's guards exclaimed as he pointed his finger in the cat's direction.

The huge black cat looked up at the guard like it understood what was being said, as it padded up in front of its master and barred its long sharp teeth as it tensed and readied itself to pounce upon anyone that dared to come nearer its master.

Swords were already halfway drawn when His calm but demanding voice sounded, "Mushu, calm".

The black cat, Mushu, growled one last time at the ones that had almost drawn their swords already, before its shoulders relaxed and it turned around to have its ears scratched momentarily by its master's hand, before it padded back towards the double oak doors to stay at the side of the third previously unnoticed person of His entourage.

She was a dökkálfar, but she was not as young as Naina had been when Loivissa had known her, though there seemed to be some semblance between this one and Naina. She was clad in green silken clothes that fitted her body quite tightly, her silver hair was braided in one long braid that hung down her right shoulder and in her hands, there was a leather inbound folder.

As Mushu rubbed its head against her thigh affectionately and with a purr, under the watchful eyes of all of the Alagaësian delegations, He once again commanded everyone's attention upon Himself with nothing more than a simple clearing of His throat.

"Mushu stays", He informed them, not asked.

"How do you expect us to feel safe if you are keeping a dangerous beast with you?", one of the delegates asked.

"Mushu will not attack unless I, or my aide de camp, have been attacked first", He told them calmly, before he let his gaze run across the different personal guards and said, "if you expect me to ask my pet to wait outside, then I expect yours to do the same".

A great deal of grumbling broke out at that, where most of the representatives looked from Him, to their own guards, then to Loivissa and Lifaen, before their gazes returned to Him once again. Loivissa knew that this would be the first battle to be fought in the meeting to come, and it would determine how it went from there on.

Lord Torbin cast a questioning look towards where Loivissa was standing, asking her specifically for her input on this matter. She nodded almost imperceptibly in response. The cat was far from the most dangerous thing in this room, so whether it stayed or not would hardly matter if the other guards were allowed to stay as well.

"I vote that it can stay if we have your assurance that it will not interfere", Lord Torbin said cautiously, which was one by one followed by the other representatives until all were in agreement.

"Excellent, now that we have that detail out of the way, I would like to confirm that each of you have been given permission by your respective monarchs to conduct negotiations in their stead, now that they apparently had more important things to spend their time on", He asked as He seated Himself at the end of the table.

"Aye, we have", the dwarven representative said.

"Good, then assuming that everyone is present, I request that this room is to be sealed from any magical or non-magical eavesdropping", He laid out his demands.

"Why should we oblige you on that?", one of the representatives asked.

"Are there anyone outside of this room that is expected to participate in the meeting?", He asked calmly, but with a hint of steel in His voice.

"No", Vanir answered carefully.

"Then I fail to see how my request should be cause for concern", He elaborated, as if talking to a child, "this is not me saying that no communication can occur with the outside world during these talks, as messengers will of course be allowed to go in and out as they are ordered, and you can all ask for recess to discuss matters with your respective monarchs. All I ask is that I am allowed to see and hear the people that I am having a discussion with. Surely, none of you can find fault in that".

"I have one", Lifaen surprised everyone by saying, "I request that an exception will be made to allow us to communicate with our other halves".

"No", He denied it outright, "find a room that fits the dragons or do not involve them".

"They are as much a part of us as any of your limbs are to you!", Loivissa growled from where she stood.

He turned to look at her with a stern expression, completely without any compassion or warmth in it, as He slowly and measuredly said, "I am not dealing with the dragon rider order. The only reason for your presence here is that I gave in to the actual delegations' request to have you present".

"And you agreed to that arrangement", Vanir commented, "what would the harm be in allowing the riders to talk with their dragons?"

"It opens up the possibility of the riders talking with others outside of this room as well", He responded, "which is why I would have no trouble with it if the dragons were inside the room as well, besides, it is not even them that will be deciding on anything during these talks, unless I am mistaken in believing that all of the Alagaësian nations have not yet relinquished their sovereignty to the dragon rider order?"

"We have not", Lord Torbin said firmly, "but we were the ones to invite the riders to participate in these meetings".

"The dragon rider order have been a part of Alagaësia since time immemorial", Vanir butted in, "they have as much say in what we decide as the other nations have".

"I disagree", Hrothgar the third, the dwarven representative objected, "the riders should not be allowed to dictate our policies".

Soon, all of the Alagaësian delegates were bickering amongst themselves about old trifles and matters that should not be discussed when there was still an outside party present. Lifaen tried only once to calm them down and get them back on track, but his attempt to do so only resulted in another round of arguments from the dwarves that the riders should stay out of this.

_Sil and I have come to an agreement and we are willing to abide by his request_, Adûn stated privately to Loivissa.

_But we will lose ground already if we give in to His demands so early in_, Loivissa argued.

_You will lose more if you allow the delegates to fracture more than they already have_, Adûn argued wisely, _Mercury's sense of politics has certainly not dulled since we last saw him. Taking a strong unified front and splitting it up into weaker divided factions with only a few simple demands and questions. You will have to be careful from now on_.

"The dragon riders agree to the terms", Loivissa's clear voice cut through the noise of the bickering delegates.

"Are you sure about this? Cutting a rider off from its other half…", Vanir asked questioningly.

"Yes, we do this of our own free will, so no hard feelings should be allowed to linger because of it", Lifaen supported her statement, obviously having been informed by Sil as well.

"Then I suppose that we agree as well", the urgal shaman said.

Loivissa looked towards His end, where she met His gaze, before He nodded almost imperceptibly towards her. It was an acknowledgement of knowing what had happened and a reminder that He had achieved everything that He had set out to and more, as the damage to the Alagaësian delegates' unity had already been done. The wards were raised soon after by both Loivissa and Lifaen, before they were then checked after by His aide de camp, Ilumëo, as Loivissa had learned her name to be.

"Then the meeting can finally be underway", He said with a sigh, "firstly, let me introduce myself and those that I represent. I am Lord Mercury of House Iridium, lord commander of the Silver Wave Alliance's forces, archduke of The Northern Wastes, the last king of Damocles and the spokesperson chosen to deliver and negotiate the Alliance's offers to the Alagaësian people".

Well, He certainly had gained a few titles since the last time that Loivissa had met him, though she was a little unsure of what he meant by 'the last king of Damocles'.

"The Silver Wave Alliance is a nation that has many of the world's former nations as its members", He continued without pause, "we provide security for our members, both on sea and land, settle disputes and grievances before they ever reach the possibility of war and provide an exchange of innovations, learning and philosophies from all across our members. And, to get to the point of my being here, we would like for the nations of Alagaësia to join our Alliance".

"What exactly would joining your 'Alliance' mean for us and our independence?", Hrothgar asked suspicious.

"If you join, you would be joining as individual nations", He stated, "you would lose most of your sovereignty, but your government would largely remain the same as it has until now, that is, if you should still wish for it to remain so, though you would be required to issue elections amongst your individual populations at least once every decade to select representatives, the amount of which would be determined by your population's size, who would represent your province within the Tribunal, which is the Alliance's functioning head that decrees the laws regarding the entire Alliance, settles disputes and many other things.

By joining voluntarily, the tax rate that is mandatory for all members would be decreased by 20% upon your induction, after which it will slowly increase over the next three decades, until it has reached the then present Alliance standards. Further minor effects are also present and can be further detailed upon in a comprehensive document that I can have delivered to each of you by the end of the day".

"You are proposing that we freely give away virtually all of our sovereignty in exchange for promises of trade, security, a momentary decrease in extra taxes and an exchange of ideas?", Lord Torbin asked carefully.

"The tax rate would remain largely the same as current levels within the Empire", He commented, "the abolishment of all but a few provincial security forces should largely cover the extra expense".

"How about the elven nation? The elves have never had the same tax system as the other races", Vanir interjected.

"I will not dictate how you administrate your province, only that you meet the agreed upon Alliance requirements", He answered.

"Then the elves will never be a part of it", Vanir decided.

"Neither will the dwarves", Hrothgar added shortly after, which soon set in motion a wave of similar decisions amongst the other races.

"And you are completely sure that there is nothing that I can do or say to change your mind?", He asked softly.

"We are", Lord Torbin confirmed.

"Then it is good that I came prepared for an eventuality such as this", He said and snapped his fingers, which made Loivissa tense and grip her sword in preparation for a surprise attack, before Ilumëo calmly walked forward and pulled out some documents from her folder, which she passed along to the other delegates, before He continued, "what you have before you is the raw drafts of trade agreements between the Silver Wave Alliance and each of your individual nations, though they are of course only the first raw drafts, so there should be plenty of room for changes. It is the Tribunal's hope that if you were to decline our initial offer, another agreement could be established to provide better relations between our nations and eventually, perhaps you would change your mind about joining".

Loivissa breathed a sigh of relief when nothing else happened. It seemed that perhaps, He had finally been leashed by someone decent that knew how to control Him. The old Him certainly would not have come all this way in the hopes of acquiring all of Alagaësia and then settle for returning with simple trade agreements, but as the day wore on and the discussions continued in relative good spirits, she realized that He might not have a choice in the matter.

They continued with negotiating the trade agreements for another five days after that, and though they only made little progress each day, it was still better than none at all. The progress was impeded by the Alliance having to establish individual treaties with each of the nations, but that did not mean that the nations did not have inputs and demands on the treaties of each other, which made it impossible to concentrate on single treaties, as there was almost always being made changes to the others as well whenever something was decided upon in one treaty.

Loivissa had not had the private discussion with Him that Adûn kept bugging her about. He had been busy during the days with the negotiations and probably tired in the nights afterwards. She had had to discuss something with her parents. It had been such a long time since she and Adûn had flown together properly. It had been raining; clearly a sign that that day was not a good day to approach Him about it.

They were all weak excuses, if some of them even got to be called that much.

_You have to talk to him today_, Adûn admonished her right before she was about to enter the meeting room again, _who knows how much longer the negotiations will last before they are signed and he leaves for good? I will not have you spend the next century wondering what could have happened_.

_I know_, Loivissa admitted, _I promise that I will corner Him after today and do as you ask, but for now, I am needed in there_.

_Go, I will be waiting out here, as usual_, the last bit was said with just a tint of resentment in his voice.

And with that, Loivissa went inside to resume the boring assignment of standing guard as the negotiations kept on going as they had for the past five days. The only noteworthy happening was that sometime during the meeting, Ilumëo went outside for a bit, though she came back in a short while after.

When she entered the room again, Loivissa noted with the interest that was born out of utter boredom that she went straight up to Him and whispered something in His ear, instead of retaking her seat as she had done the previous times this had happened.

He nodded at whatever she had said, before He suddenly rose from his seat and in a calm yet slightly smug voice, He said, "lords, ladies and variables, I can hereby inform you that around noon on this day, the dragon rider city of Estildirin fell to my Alliance forces".

Silence, complete and utter silence was the response to that, as everyone gaped at the statement in unison.

Loivissa barely had time to comprehend the words before the representatives all rose from their seats and violently demanded to know what the meaning of such insolent slander was, along with numerous other foul words that Loivissa did not wish to repeat.

"Furthermore", He continued as if there had been no interruptions, "I can inform you that the imperial cities of Teirm, Kuasta and Narda have also been subdued by my forces, which are continuing to flood into the cities even as we speak".

"Insolent worm, you will never get away with this!", Lord Torbin almost frothed, "guards, bring him to me in chains!"

All of the delegations and their guards drew swords, including Loivissa and Lifaen, but just as they took the first step towards Him, He simply raised His right hand with the palm facing them and said, "I am afraid that I cannot allow that to happen", before His eyes glowed with a silver glow.

Almost immediately, Loivissa felt how a magical force restricted her movements, and from her peripheral vision, she noticed that no one had moved after that first step, so she guessed that the magic affected them as well. Obviously, no one had considered to ward against something like that when you were not even going into battle.

"It is a mistake on your part to think that you can measure up to the riders", Lifaen spat, "**ease our bonds!**"

Loivissa and all of the other mages in the room copied his incantation to join forces in breaking the spell that bound them, creating a massive combined pool of energy, which, combined with Loivissa's and Lifaen's stores in their rider swords, would suffer no rival.

For almost five minutes, they continued to pour energy into the spell without it taking any effect whatsoever, and already, the human mages had had to give up. The dwarven mages were the next ones to go, before the urgal shaman and finally even Vanir succumbed as well.

Loivissa could not fathom how He could have so much energy as to match their combined efforts without even looking like He was exerting Himself at all. It was not possible that they could be defeated so easily, and yet He still showed no signs of exertion as Lifaen finally let go of his spell as well.

"**No, I will not give up!**", Loivissa shouted, though her personal stores were nearing dangerous levels, "**Release my bonds!**"

For a brief moment, Loivissa thought that she saw surprise flicker in His eyes as she uttered her ultimatum, which would either release her or kill her, or both, but as suddenly as the energy started to surge from her system at an alarming rate, He clenched his outstretched hand and she could feel the spell lifting as everyone but Him collapsed upon the floor from exertion.

It was at this moment that the non-mage guards that had not participated in the earlier trial of strength, rushed forward to dispose of the threat. They did not get far, as their previous wards against magic had now been lifted due to their casters having fainted, so after only three small steps, all of them were lifted up into the air by another wordless spell, and with a flick of His wrist, they were thrown sideways into the wall like they were nothing more than dolls.

The double oak doors burst open, but instead of seeing the citadel guards storming inside, Loivissa only saw four scruffy looking men with Teirm city guard uniforms on, which had a red x painted over the Teirm crest, and lying in the hall in a pool of their own blood were the citadel guards that had been guarding the room until now.

The sounds of dragons wailing and screams could be heard, now that the wards sealing the room from the outside world had been broken.

"The wall shook, so we came at once", one of the scruffy men told Him with what Loivissa recognized as an actual Teirm accent.

"Everything is under control here, return to your assignments", He ordered them, before He turned to the unmoving representatives that had neither participated in the battle of magic or the attempted charge, and said, "I am sorry that it had to come to this, but you left me with no choice when you refused my offer to join of your own free will. Now, watch as I take your lands from you by force".

"**I will never allow you to win**", Loivissa snarled and since she knew that for some reason, she was no match for Him in pure strength, she initiated a mental combat instead.

To her surprise and alarm, there were no barriers around His mind, only what looked like a wall with a clear and unobstructed entrance in it. She did not like how much it seemed like a trap, but her previous words left her with no choice but to at least try to put a stop to this menace, so she continued further inside.

His mind was unlike any that she had ever encountered before, and so very different from the last time that she had been inside of it, as it offered no resistance to her intrusion. In fact, it seemed more like the actual structure of a building than a layout of a mind, as the 'walls' around her consisted of fragmented pieces of memories and thoughts that were seemingly incoherently put together in a mishmash of everything.

As she ventured further inside, she encountered many crossroads where she either had to go left, right, up or down, or sometimes an entirely different direction that made no sense in the physical world, and it did not take long before Loivissa realized that the conscious part of her mind that she had sent forward in an attack, was now completely and utterly lost within this maze of impossible directions.

Anger turned to caution, which then turned to confusion and finally to fear as she struggled to find her way out again, but it was to no avail, as the maze also seemed to change the very build of its walls every so often, and even if she tried to break through the walls, more would simply be there and the broken ones would close in upon themselves again.

She had heard about people getting lost within someone else's mind, but never before had she truly understood what they had meant by it, not until now. Not until she herself had lost her way back. Feeling shameful and sorry for herself for having failed Alagaësia once again, for once again not being strong enough to win on her own and needing a knight in shining armour to come in and rescue her, Loivissa stopped trying to get out altogether and let her conscious metaphorically lay down and cry where she was.

"**Sleep**", a powerful voice echoed within this realm, or perhaps it was a sensation from her own body? She did not know, and neither did she care at the moment as her eyes drifted shut without her consent.

The last thing that she experienced within the maze was that of a multi-coloured humanoid being that was dressed in robes and which was standing over the form of her conscious, before it began to lift her up in its arms and carry her somewhere that she did not know where was.

* * *

...and there we finally have it. The plot has been set, the dices cast and Mercury has taken the world by storm.

And now that that cat is finally out of the bag, I can finally release a sidestory that I have worked on for some time, but which might have spoiled this moment for me(and you). It will be called Two Sides, and it will be released every Sideshow Saturday(do not make fun of it if you are called Bart).

Until this Saturday(or Monday, if you do not care to read that).


	5. To the edge of night

This chapter actually takes place during the events of the last one, and there will be skipped a bit in the time in it, so beware and enjoy!

* * *

**To the edge of night**

**Edmure POV  
**Edmure was a human in his mid-twenties that had served in the Alliance forces for almost a decade now. He had a taunt rugged face with wide shoulders and only four fingers on his left hand, and if you asked any of his comrades whether they thought that he was handsome, they would laugh and tell you that his was a face that only a mother could love.

He was the bastard son of a barmaid and some random soldier that had visited her inn, whom neither of them had ever seen since. Growing up had not exactly been easy for Edmure, as everyone in the village had looked down upon him and his mother, but life had taught him that in order to survive, you needed to be tough.

On the seventeenth year of his life, he had worked as a waiter at the same inn as his mother, as he had done so for much of his life, but during a stormful night that fall, a group of three travelling merchants had sought shelter in their particular inn.

This had not been a new or uncommon occurrence, but these merchants had gotten far too drunk for their own good and had started insulting him and his mother with foul names, lewd comments and comparisons between Edmure's father and certain animals.

Insulting him had been fine, he had after all grown up with it, but when they had started to accuse his mother of siring him with an ox, he had snapped and attacked the one that had said it.

Edmure had always been strongly built and good in a fight, as he had been forced to be in order to survive his childhood, so despite it being three on one, he had fared quite well. In the end, things had gotten out of hand and he had accidentally ended up killing two of the merchants.

The law that had been in place in the Alliance since its creation was very clear on what happened to murderers; if you were judged guilty of murder without reasonable cause to lessen your sentence, you would be sentenced to death.

And that would have been it for Edmure, if not for a side clause that dictated that all murderers sentenced to death were to be given the choice of either going through with the verdict or spending the next 80 years serving in the armed forces.

It was rumoured that it had been the lord commander that had pushed the clause through, as he had supposedly argued that their talents for killing could be put to better use serving the Alliance than their cold dead corpses could.

Choosing to serve was not equal to getting off easy, as even though they were still being paid, convicts were banned from acquiring any lands or families during the duration of their service, and Edmure had heard that those that actually made it to the end of their sentence, which were only dökkálfar as humans rarely lived that long naturally, often did not know how to be anything but soldiers, so even the few that tried to leave the armed services afterwards, always came back sooner or later when they realized that they could no longer fit into the civilian life that they had dreamt of.

As Edmure's old training instructor had once said, "the Alliance claims your life as punishment either way. The only difference is whether they milk you dry first".

Running from your sentence was not exactly an option either, as the lord commander had personally made sure that if someone ran from their sentence, then a wanted poster with that person's picture, name and description on it would be present in every town, village and city across the Alliance not even a week after, which basically made sure that you could never show your face in public again.

And when they caught you, there would be no second chances, same as if you murdered one of your comrades. When it came to deserters, the lord commander lost any understanding of the meaning of overkill. Personally, Edmure believed that he did it more to set an example that resistance was futile than because he believed that one deserter was worth so much effort.

"What has you in such a foul mood? Feeling sick?", Blödh, one of the dökkálfar in his Decan, and his best friend, asked.

"Sick? Pfft, after half a year of training in these things, I doubt that anyone will get seasick", Edmure replied with a grin.

These 'things' were actually airtight fully submersible water-going constructions made from wood, steel and with a layer of tar on the outside. This model was called a 'Trident', but if you asked any army soldier, or the crew of the topside navy for that matter, then this entire species of new sea-vessels should be called coffins.

Edmure could not fault them for believing the Tridents to be akin to coffins, as from an outside perspective, it surely must have seemed ludicrous for anyone to ever think of making an airtight container that could hold 100 men in a not exactly spacious environment, give it a small crystal-driven screw and some fish-like fins to steer it, then sink it with everyone on board by flooding some outer compartments with water and then let it sail underwater for a very carefully estimated time until they had to go up for air again.

To anyone that had actually worked with the Tridents before, they seemed like an act of brilliance for getting an army safely behind enemy sea-blockades and defences without anyone ever noticing until it was too late.

Still, this would be the Tridents' first deployment to an actual battlefield, as only training exercises had been available before this mission, so everyone was a tad bit nervous about how it would go. The plan was for the five Tridents of Edmure's group to surface in the middle of the Teirm and take over the city, so that the main force could sail in unobstructed and unchallenged with the rest of the lord commander's forces.

Edmure on the other hand did not doubt that the Tridents would work according to the plan, because both the plan and the Tridents had been drawn up by the lord commander, and if there was one thing that he had learned since he had been given the honour of joining the First Sword, then that was that the lord commander always knew what he was doing.

It was not for nothing that the First Sword was viewed as the very best of the Alliance's Swords, as the First Sword was always commanded by either the lord commander or one of his vassals. In fact, the First Sword was so fiercely loyal to the lord commander that they had once mutinied and risked being declared outlaws when the Tribunal had, for the last time in recorded history, tried to forcefully give the command of the First Sword to someone that the lord commander had not agreed upon.

The incident had been before Edmure's mother had even been thought of being conceived, but he had no doubts that if something similar were to ever happen, then the same result would occur once again. In fact, if the lord commander ever asked it of them, then Edmure was pretty certain that more than three quarters of the entire armed forces would rally behind him, not to mention the massive amount of support that the general populace showed him.

If the lord commander wanted to, he could usurp the Tribunal with hardly any effort, and the fact that everyone, including the lord commander, pretty much knew that he could do so, with some even hoping for it, but that he never did it, only made people love him all that much more.

"Alright ladies, 15 minutes until we surface", Edmure's Centurinus declared loudly.

"Care to check my wards?", Blödh asked from beside Edmure.

"Sure, hold still", Edmure turned around and drew a small dagger from his belt.

He deliberately aimed the blow at Blödh's steel shoulderplate at such an angle that even if the wards were malfunctioning, the dagger would bounce off of it without risking damage to either. As Edmure struck, he felt the blade divert away and he hit nothing but empty air with it.

"Looks fine, now do mine", Edmure requested and handed Blödh his dagger with the hilt first.

As Blödh struck forward, Edmure felt his army-issued talisman draw upon his strength to divert the dagger away. Blödh handed him back the dagger and he put it back in his belt, as he began to check the rest of his equipment.

The talismans were part of the reason why mages no longer dominated the way that the Alliance waged war. They were enchanted to give the wearers of them a standard set of wards against the most common magic attacks in exchange for using the user's own energy until only so much was left in the body, though the First Sword had all received the upgraded versions that included limited protection from arrows and sharp objects as well.

As a mage friend of Edmure's had once told him, the talismans were actually not that impressive in comparison to what they were taught during battlemage training, but their genius played on the fact that their cheap metal shell and easy-to-make wards could easily be mass-produced and used on almost every Alliance soldier, thereby preventing enemy mages from finding that one mage that warded an entire group and targeting him, so that the group could be easily taken out afterwards, as everyone now had their own set of wards.

It did not mean that mages were useless in the Alliance army, far from it actually, but it largely diminished enemy mages' importance in battles.

Another change to most army structures was that in each Alliance Sword, there were a total of three archmages, which were given of the Sword's three rings of power to use in battle. The rings of power in question were rings that had been crafted specifically to store large amounts of energy in them, and which every member of the entire Sword was required to make a small carefully measured donation to once every second week. The many small donations that were constantly being made quickly grew to enormous proportions of energy in the three rings.

The lord commander always wielded one of First Sword's rings when in battle, which was actually his own signet ring, while one of the other archmages were on a different Trident from Edmure's, and the last one was with the ships that waited for the all clear signal to sail in and unload.

The amount of energy in each ring was extremely carefully monitored and the rings themselves were guarded more closely when they were not in use than the Sword's treasury was. The lord commander had even sponsored a study to develop a definition of energy, which was based on how much energy it took to heat a litre of water one degree, seemingly solely to allow the mages that were responsible for keeping track of the rings' power to write down how much energy was in each ring and how much had been donated or used in battle.

The three rings of power system did not mean that the other mages were banned from making stores of their own, quite the opposite actually, as they were each loaned a ring to serve just that purpose, but they had to fill it themselves.

Edmure was no mage and neither was Blödh, but unlike Edmure, Blödh was a lot more sullen about it, being born into the most magically talented race in the Alliance and all, and then not actually being able to do any magic yourself.

"Two minutes until we surface", the Centurinus declared.

Edmure reached for his shield with his left hand that was missing the littlefinger, a courtesy of his first artic wargame that was held during the summer months up in The Northern Wastes, and it served as a constant reminder to him that you always had to carefully consider the climate when dressing for a guard duty.

It might have been summer further south in the province of Alalëa, but summer in The Northern Wastes simply meant that you could at least survive the cold, as they said that it was snowing eight months a year in that province, and that it had a blizzard for the remaining four.

Why the lord commander had decided to build his 'summer house', as the soldiers often called his ice fortress, in the middle of the toughest and coldest place on the planet, Edmure did not know, and nor did he know how the lord commander could stand the freezing cold without seemingly noticing it at all, but it did give a reason as to why the guards of his ice fortress were labelled as frost giants among the regular soldiers, which had then led to the lord commander being given the nickname of Lord Frost, not that anyone dared to call him that if he was around.

"Surfacing!", the Centurinus shouted as Edmure felt the Trident ascend, "first through fifth Decan, secure the harbour, sixth and seventh, link up with the eighteenth through twenty-first Decan and take control of the citadel, eight through tenth Decan, you are with me in securing the southern gates. Remember that a red x means that they are working for our side. Now, move it, move it, move it".

"Watch my back, will you?", Blödh asked as the doors unsealed to cast rays of natural sunlight and a fresh wave of air inside the Trident, along with the inhuman wails of a creature that Edmure had never heard before.

"Always, friend", Edmure replied as they began to mass out of the doorway.

**Al POV  
**Al's actual name was Alastor, but he had always hated how it sounded, so he had only gone by Al for as long as he could remember, and in time, people had forgotten that Alastor even existed.

Al was a mercenary, clear and simple, so when the Grey Organization had recruited him several years ago to work for them, he and his band of mercenaries had said yes without much of a second thought. The organization had shown considerable coin upon the first meeting and had then promised more for their continued service, so it would have been moronic of Al to turn them down on their offer.

There had been that, and then there had been the fact that he had heard the stories of what had happened to the Cart brothers, the Leona syndicate and the others that had tried to oppose the Grey Organization more than a decade ago. Al had known perfectly well at the time of the offer that if the Grey Organization approached you with a job offer, you either accepted it or went underground, more often than not, quite literally.

For several years, Al and his band of mercenaries had done what they had been told with no questions asked, but when Al had discovered what the true purpose of the Grey Organization was, he had been quite shocked, but not so much that he would ever try to turn away from the Grey Organization, as he, unlike that moronic fence in Teirm a few months ago, had known perfectly well that joining it had been a one-way trip.

Besides, it was not like Al had ever been the most patriotic person anyway, as he and his friends would be content to serve whatever master paid them the best, or the one who had the power to kill you at a moment's notice and then make sure that everyone believed that it had never even happened in the first place.

And, if he was to be completely honest with himself, he did rather like the job that he had been assigned for today's party. The dragon riders had been a constant source of trepidation during every previous job that his band had ever pulled, so it would be fun to give them a bloody nose after all that trouble that they had caused for them over the years.

"The men are moving into position, sir", Lorgath, his second-in-command, informed him in a low voice as they walked on the highest floor of the dragon quarters, where all of the dragon riders and their dragons were lodged.

"Good, now we just have to get in position and await the signal", Al responded.

The duo climbed atop the tiled roof of the building without anyone's notice, where he could see all of his other teams spread out around the giant square hole in the middle of the building that acted as the dragons' landing and take-off spot.

Al counted twenty other teams on the roof, _good it means that everyone is here_, he thought as he and Lorgath, like many of the other teams, began to loosen the tiles with a broken circle cut into them. Hidden underneath the tiles was the equipment that the Grey Organization had spent months smuggling up there during their work 'fixing' the leaking roof.

Al pulled up and loaded the crossbow with the quite large steel encased bolt that had a heavy steel cable attached to the end of it, while Lorgath secured the nets and weights. The crossbow was heavier than he was used to handling, but it had to be so when you considered its purpose. Within minutes, both of them were ready to spring into action as soon as the signal came.

"You look for the signal while I monitor the ground", Al instructed Lorgath.

"Sure, sir", Lorgath complied easily enough as he turned to the citadel, while Al looked down upon the open grounds underneath him.

There were six dragons lounging in the grounds underneath; a silver one, a sea-blue one, two yellow ones, a brown one and lastly a red one. Three riders were walking down there as well, but they did not matter. If they resisted when the time came, then the snipers would take care of them.

"Green smoke rises from the citadel", Lorgath announced the appearance of the signal.

Al quickly caught the attention of the other teams on the roof, and when he was sure that they were all looking at him, he counted down from three with his fingers. Just as he reached zero, he and the other twenty teams fired their identical crossbows all at once.

20 heavy steel bolts flew downwards and buried themselves into the marble floor of the building as the steel cables spun a net across the entire hole, before all 20 shooters let the heavily weighted ends of the cables fall down so that the net fell down upon and wrap around the surprised dragons. Next up were the actual weighted nets with enough weight at the end of them that they required two men just to throw them off the side of the roof.

Half the nets landed on the dragons and half landed on their riders, thereby disabling both. The dragons roared, fought and writhed all that they could, but they did nothing more than entangle themselves further and further. The puny attempts at burning through the steel cables were even less useful, and Al and his men all laughed as one of the dragons nearly burned its own rider in the process.

The entertainment only increased as the rest of Al's men came running in on the ground level, after having disposed of the city guards assigned to the dragon quarters, where they quickly knocked out the riders and removed their weapons and then proceeded to throw extra ropes around the writhing dragons to further tie them down.

_It would have been much easier to just kill them, but the boss-lady specifically ordered that they should be taken alive_, Al mused as his men on the ground managed to get ropes around the snouts of several of the dragons, before he turned to Lorgath and said, "report that the dragon quarters have been secured with no casualties on our side or among the riders, as per our orders".

**Thedric POV  
**Thedric was walking his round atop the western wall of Teirm; the one facing out towards the harbour and the sea. It was a beautiful day with a clear sky and a fresh breeze wafting in form the sea, and even though many of his colleagues in the city guard hated the salty scent that the sea winds always brought, Thedric loved it.

He had grown up in Teirm and the one time that he had been far enough away from the coast to not be able to smell the sea, his feet had gotten wobbly and he had begun to fear to be swallowed up by the endless earth that had no waves to counter them.

The sea had always represented safety and the promise of a new day to Thedric, and if it had not been because he got seasick the moment that he set foot on a boat, he would definitely have been a member of the imperial navy instead of the city guard.

It was a thing that his fellow guards often joked about; how he was incapable of separating himself from either the sea or the land and had to have both near him to function.

Thedric reached the guardhouse on his segment of the wall and went inside to warm his fingers by the heath and fill his belly with some cheap heated wine, while he laughed and talked with the rest of his fellow guards.

As he entered, the other four guards nodded at him before one of them handed him his tankard and they soon resumed what they had been doing before he had had to walk his round.

Nothing ever happened that the city guard needed to worry themselves overly about, especially this last decade where even the bandit groups that had raided the trade routes further inland had begun to call it quits.

The most excitement that the city guard had had in a long time had come from those foreigners' state visit, and even then, the city guard was mostly reduced to lining the streets to perform crowd control, and speaking of the devil, the leader of the foreigners seemed to be the infamous Shadow himself that Thedric had heard stories about when he had been a child.

He did not know whether the person that was visiting truly was the Shadow, as he neither had the ethereal giant snow-white hell wolves of Angvard at his side nor the scythe that Thedric's granny had always told him about. In fact, if it had not been for those eerie eyes of his and the strange purple-grey-skinned creatures that he brought with him, which to Thedric looked like something that had drowned at sea and then been risen against their will, then Thedric would have dismissed the rumours as just that.

"Brrr, these foreigners have no business here, I tell ya", Gendric, the oldest of the guards and Thedric's father, said, "foreigners have only ever brought bad news with them. Better to mind your own business and let others mind theirs, I say".

"Aye, why can they not just stay where they belong and leave ours to us?", Thedric agreed with his father. It was best to agree with whatever his father said, or else he might become mad, and that was not something that Thedric wanted.

"But according to Heslant the Monk, all humans in Alagaësia came here from across the sea", Ludric, Thedric's younger and more bookish brother argued.

"Brrr, humans have always lived in Alagaësia", Gendric sneered, "my father, his father and his father before him have all lived in Teirm for as long as anyone can remember, so do not start questioning me about where we come from and say that we hail from some mystical land across the sea. Ya got that, boy?"

"Yes, father", Ludric submitted, though Thedric knew that his views had not changed. They never did, and that was why his father and his brother were always fighting with one another.

"Brrr, I do not believe ya, you little bookworm. Always having to stick your nose in those books when the true answers lie right in front of ya, and not in some godforsaken books. Why I relented when your mother asked me to get ya a teacher to help you read, I will never know", Gendric grunted.

"I am walking another round", Thedric announced as he rose from his chair and set his tankard aside.

"But you just walked one", Heff, one of the two new recruits that had only just joined last week, said.

"I could use the sea breeze to clear my addled mind", Thedric lied. In truth, he just wanted to be out of there before his father and brother really began to go at each other.

"Mind if I walk with you", Heff asked, obviously sensing the danger of being in the room for much longer.

"Sure, suit yourself", Thedric replied and sent an apologetic look towards the other new recruit that had no excuse to get out of here.

The two of them left the guardhouse just as his brother and father really began to go at each other, and after walking for a little while on the wall, they stopped to look out across the sea. There was nothing to see out there, not that Thedric expected there to be, as no one could even remember when the last pirate attack on Teirm had been.

The roar of a dragon split the air, before another and then another joined it.

Thedric frantically turned around to see what was going on in the dragon quarters, not that you could actually see that much from where he stood, but as he turned around, he also spotted green smoke rising from the citadel.

"What in the world is going on?", Thedric wondered, when the sound of screaming people made him turn back towards the docks, where he could only watch as the guards down there were suddenly ambushed and slaughtered by armed men that seemed to appear as if out of nowhere.

"Something strange is going on", Thedric muttered without being able to take his eyes off of the grizzly scene that was befalling before him.

He only just managed to say the last bit before he spotted more men carrying planks out to empty spots in the harbour. That is, they were empty until five giant black vessels suddenly burst forth from underwater, like a bobble rising up to the surface, and as the planks were being laid out to them, doors seemed to open up in the strange constructions, from which masses of soldiers, humans and those strange foreigners alike, started to pour out from.

"They are invading the city", Thedric only now realized with dread, "we have to get back and ring the warning bells, so that- ugh", was the last thing that he said before his mouth was muffled by a hand, Heff's hand, and the cold sharp blade of a dagger pierced him from behind.

There was nothing Thedric could do as he felt his life-force rapidly vanish from him, but just as he was about to close his eyes, he heard Heff talk, as if to someone else, "did you get the other two?"

"Yeah, they were so busy arguing that they never even saw the blade until it was too late", the other new recruit's voice said laughingly.

Thedric writhed as he realized what they meant, but only managed to dig the dagger further into his flesh.

"Hmm, seems like this one is reluctant to die quietly", Heff murmured in a cold calculated voice as Thedric felt the blade leave his body, before he then felt it cut open his throat from ear to ear instead.

Thedric died immediately after that.

* * *

And so we have the first confirmed named deaths of the war. Trust me, it will not be the last...


	6. Until the stars are all alight

**Until the stars are all alight**

**Mercury POV  
**It had been a week since Mercury's forces had captured the coastal cities of Teirm, Kuasta and Narda, along with the vast majority of the Empire's navy, which had been stationed in just those cities. The rest of the imperial navy was being hunted down even now, as they really did not stand any chance against the three fleets that he had brought with him to finish this end of the job.

Even one of his fleets would have easily been able to finish off what remained of the imperial navy, but Mercury had always believed that it was better to error on the side of caution, as there was always an element of uncertainty whenever wars were being fought.

Even though the three fleets in and of themselves were an impressive enough force, their purpose was actually more along the lines of making sure that the sea truly and unquestionably belonged to the Alliance, so as to not have any chances of the Alagaësians sneaking forces around his own ground forces that had landed unhindered in the three coastal cities, which consisted of just three Alliance Swords; the First, Second and Fifth swords to be exact, or roughly 30.000 men.

"The final reports have just come in", his aide, Ilumëo, said from in front of his desk, which was actually the previous lord of Teirm's desk, "during the extent of Operation A Foot in the Door, 537 natives were killed, of which 356 were guards and the remaining 181 civilians were killed while attempting to obstruct our forces. Furthermore, a total of 32 allied people were killed, of which all were native mercenaries, while Alliance forces came out with only 11 wounded, of which none were critical".

"Thank you, inform the men that with the successful end of Operation A Foot in the Door, Operation No Mercy will commence immediately", Mercury responded as he swirled around the wine in the wineglass that he was holding in his right hand, which no longer held his signet ring, as it was kept with the other three when he did not need it.

It had a strange yet mystifying glow that resulted from the light of the small noflam that he had brought with him from his ship's quarters. The wine almost seemed alive as the swirling made it change to give out first an orange, then a red and sometimes even a pink colour.

A noflam was an invention that had first seen the day of light during one of the annual contests for advancement that Mercury sponsored. It was, in all its simplicity, a small dwarven lantern on a small metal rod that fitted unto any desk-space and which had been spelled to turn off when one tapped it twice and to turn on when you only tapped it once, though the larger models meant for lighting up entire rooms were more often than not spelled to do the same with the sound of someone snapping their fingers twice or once.

The contests, where the noflam had first seen the day of light, were actually divided up into three major categories; pure magic, pure non-magic and mixed, where the pure magic part was solely based around admitting advances in magic spells and so on, while the non-magic part was focused on learning to accomplish or predict the outcome of things without the use of magic, and finally, the mixed part revolved around trying to take mundane machinery and problems and solve or improve them with the help of magic, but so that non-mages could also operate the machinery.

Since Mercury sponsored the annual contests, he was always given the privilege of setting the theme for one of the challenges in each of the major categories for the contest three years from the one where he announced the challenge, so as to give the competitors time to prepare their inputs.

In effect, Mercury's challenges had always been regarded as the main prizes, while all other contests were secondary to those. Doing it like this had enabled Mercury to push forward the time of the societies that seemed to have been stuck in the dark ages for thousands of years now, but at the same time, it allowed him to stay clear of having to actually do the work himself.

For example, one year, he had, for the non-magic challenge, declared that he wished to find a way to determine exactly how long it would take for an undetermined object to drop an unspecified distance.

Mercury knew that the law of gravity would still apply in this world, but he wanted for them to figure the concept out themselves, instead of him just giving them the answer, as that would hardly make them break out of the dullness that seemed to have consumed them since time immemorial.

Only a few inputs had been submitted to that particular contest, of which a few of them actually came pretty close to understanding the concept of constant gravitational pull, which might have been made easier for them as Mercury had earlier defined the unit of time as being how long it took a one kg lead lump to fall five metres in a magically induced vacuum.

He had already known, when he had ordered to define the unit of time as such, that the specifics of the object was not important, but if he had mentioned that back then, then he might as well have given them the formula for gravity already.

Because of the careful planning of when to instigate certain key elements to his non-mage challenges, Mercury had been able to push the Alliance's understanding of physics, chemistry and certain other subjects from somewhere near the dark ages to somewhere close to the renaissance, though he had yet to introduce the steam engine and certain other elements to the Alliance that he had envisioned for close to the last four centuries.

"Was there anything else that you needed?", Mercury inquired as he noticed that Ilumëo had not yet left his office to carry out his orders.

"Yes, there is still the matter of what to do with the mercenaries that the Grey Organization hired", Ilumëo mentioned as she opened her leather folder, "if you wish it, I could have them form a special auxiliary centurion under the command of the First Sword?"

"No, putting that kind of fighters on the front line would be less beneficial than it would be detrimental to my overall forces", Mercury responded without taking his eyes off of the wineglass, "tell Commander Elladan to hand them the list of the prioritized targets and have them do the job of hunting them down instead. They are after all, more acquainted with the land than the rest of my Varangian Guard".

"But is it really wise to entrust such a delicate task to such…people", Ilumëo asked sceptically.

"If nothing else, it will keep the mercenaries busy until the time comes to deal with them", Mercury merely shrugged and took a sip of the blood-red liquid, "we can always get the commander and a portion of the Guard to take over for them afterwards if they are incompetent in that regard as well".

"I understand", Ilumëo acknowledged as she scribbled down a note in her folder, "I believe that that should be all for today, have a pleasant afternoon".

"Thank you, I will", Mercury responded as she exited the commandeered office to carry out his orders.

_It is not the best that I have ever had, but this Aroughs Red does have some notable qualities at least_, he mused as he continued to pour himself another glass from the wine that he had pilfered from the cupboards of the previous lord of Teirm.

Just as he finished pouring, the desperate yet frail growl of a dragon sounded from outside the window. Without pausing from his task in any way, Mercury set down the bottle and went to stand by the window to hear as the dragon's growl was slowly but surely tuned down until it could no longer be heard.

It had come from the facility where he was keeping all of the dragons locked up in, which was coincidentally the exact same building where they had always resided, as that was the optimal location to house the dragons, though there had of course been a few additions installed.

One such addition were the heavy steel chains that bound the dragons and tied them down, so that they would not pose a threat to anyone by suddenly going on a rampage, while another was the replacement of the previous guards of the dragon riders with his own men.

The riders of said dragons had all been locked up in improvised anti-mage cells that would hold them forever if Mercury wished for them to be held for that long, though he would much rather have them moved to proper anti-mage cells as soon as they were finished being constructed.

Another dragon wail soon followed the other one, which was also quickly muted down, before a third one started up. By the time the sixth one had quieted down, Mercury knew that all of them had been fed for the day, as that was currently the only time when their steel muzzles were taken off for any period of time.

They had tried to blast their surroundings with fire the first few feedings after their capture, but after having been stabbed by spears in non-vital areas enough times without the possibility of retaliating, and then having their food taken away as an extra punishment, the dragons had soon learned that it was best just to eat the offered food and not try to destroy anything.

_Perhaps I should go see her_, Mercury mused as he once again began to swirl the now mostly full glass of wine, _I know that I have to do it sooner or later, and a week should be enough time for her to have calmed down substantially. Who knows, perhaps it will even go well_.

He had purposely not seen Loivissa since he had overpowered her in the meeting room a week ago, as he deemed that she would likely have been unwilling to listen to anything that he would have to say immediately after the incident. It would have simply been a waste of his time to talk to her any earlier, as it was imperative for his future plans for her that she not just tune out his words without a second thought.

Well, that was his logical reason for waiting, but another less logical one was that he had purposely postponed it to stall the point of no return, the point where she as well would be subject to his machinations.

Still, just standing here, looking out over the city and further out to the sea behind it, seemed like a good choice as well. The scent of the sea certainly brought back fond memories of a life lived in carefree voluntary ignorance to the world around him, back from before he had realized what had to be done in order to fix it.

"My, my, I seem to have gotten nostalgic all of a sudden", Mercury murmured surprised, "has my little pet already reached that far? I would have thought that It would have tired of these games after centuries of playing them. I guess that it really must be time for me to visit her then".

And with those final words, Mercury downed the remainder of his glass and proceeded to venture down into the dungeons under the citadel, where the riders' cells were located. He had to wave off a surprised prison guard on the way down and insist that both his own guards and the prison guards leave him as he talked in private with one of the prisoners.

Loivissa's cell looked almost exactly like a normal prison cell with its iron bars and cold stone walls, aside from the addition of the metal encased slightly glowing amethysts that would block any magic or mental abilities within their vicinity. They had been among the first of the subjects that he had had ordered rediscovered upon defeating the Ra'zac Empire, as their value in containing mages was far too important for them to be lost to time and forgetfulness.

Sitting in the middle of the little cell was the crouching form of Loivissa, who had her foot chained to the wall with a chain that was just a little too short for her to be able to touch the amethyst crystals. She had her knees pulled up to her chin, with her arms around them and her head bent down over them, so that her long golden hair obscured her face from view. It did not look like she had even registered that he was there.

"The guards tell me that you have hardly eaten", Mercury announced his presence just outside of the iron bars.

Her head snapped up upon hearing his words, and Mercury could see heavy bags under her red eyes, as well as clear indications that she had been crying a lot recently, before she returned the head to its previous position without a word or sound. An untouched plate of food had been pushed just out of her reach, presumably by herself, which only confirmed Mercury's suspicion that she was purposely denying herself food out of guilt.

He unlocked the cell door with the key and proceeded to enter the small cell that housed her. The effect of the amethysts could be felt as his wards all abandoned him, but he did not care about that at the moment, as he could always raise them again later, and she certainly posed no threat to him in her current state.

"You really should eat, you know", Mercury said softly as he squatted down in front of her and pushed the plate of food, which consisted of a bowl of soup and some rye bread, into her reach once again, "punishing yourself by starving is after all only a cowards choice, and I have never pegged you for a coward".

"Leave me alone", Loivissa growled without looking up.

"Why, so you can continue to sulk in the dark and pretend that by denying yourself food, you are in any way making up for allowing me to take the entire northern coastline with minimal effort, as well as conquering Estildirin and subduing the very power base of the dragon riders?", Mercury asked her, but as no answer came, he snorted and continued, "both of your parents would turn in their graves if they could see you now".

"They are dead?!", Loivissa looked up in shock from the news.

"Yes, according to my reports, they both died in the air above Estildirin as they tried in vain to halt the inevitable victory of my forces", Mercury said casually, "all but a very select few of the dragon riders that were in Estildirin have either been killed or captured".

Instead of responding verbally, Loivissa lunged forward with her hands out to strangle Mercury's neck, but the chain on her ankle prevented her from reaching him by a very short distance. It was no coincidence that Mercury had chosen to place himself where he had.

He looked at her hands with dull interest as they continued to try and find a way to somehow reach him, but eventually, Loivissa understood that she simply could not reach him and retreated back to her former space.

"I understand that this saddens you greatly, but you can be assured that Adûn at the very least is still alive, though he is confined with the other dragons and you are regrettably banned from communicating with him until we can be sure that you will not try to attempt something foolish", Mercury explained calmly.

His response was for the soup bowl from the food plate to be hurled at his face with as much force as Loivissa could muster, but when he deftly avoided being hit by it by tilting his head to the side, the ceramic plate came next, which he actually had to move his entire body to avoid getting hit by.

Both objects crashed into the iron bars and splintered upon impact, but just as Mercury believed that she had run out of ammo, the rye bread flew at him next. He grabbed it in front of his face with lightning fast reflexes and proceeded to calmly set it down next to him as he once again resumed his previous position.

"Your reaction time is faster than back then", Loivissa noted with anger clear in her voice at him avoiding her projectiles.

"And you have gotten slower since then", he noted calmly, "I believe it to be because of your lack of sustenance. You really should not throw your food away".

"Remove my chains and these foul crystals and I shall show you just how much you underestimate me", Loivissa growled

"We already played this game once before", Mercury smiled coyly at her, "you lost".

"I was not prepared", Loivissa objected.

"People seldom are, but the facts still stand that even with the reserves in your sword and the help of another rider, an elf, an urgal shaman, two human mages and three dwarven ones, you could not beat me, so what hope do you have now?", Mercury craned his head just a little forward to emphasize that he was not in the least afraid of what she might do.

"I should have realized your corruption from the moment that you first set foot on Alagaësian soil", Loivissa admitted with guilt evident in her voice, as she lowered her head to her knees once again, "if I had just done what I was sent there to do, then none of this would have happened".

"Loivissa, I know that you probably do not hold my word in high regard right now, but would you please stop your guilt-tripping for just a moment", Mercury said sternly, as he watched how she looked up at him with surprise evident in her features, "I spent the better part of a decade having Alagaësia's underground infiltrated and bringing it under my control. The plans for my invasion have been finalized for years, and nothing that you could have possibly done could have changed the fate of those cities. Estildirin would have still been caught by a surprise attack and been defeated, and even if you had realized that I had ill intent the moment that I stepped off my ship and had me arrested, I would have still been able to conduct the invasion from a prison cell. The only difference between that scenario and now would have been that far more civilian casualties would have occurred when the fleet had arrived and started its bombardment of your coastal defences".

"You are as dark as the magic of those amethysts that you use", Loivissa responded with venom.

Mercury gave an amused snort at her comparison, as he said, "so you ended up adopting the riders' viewpoints after all. How many times must I tell you that no magic is dark or light? Magic is as much a tool for its user as a hammer is for a blacksmith, as both can be used equally to inflict death and destruction and to create new wondrous things".

"That is the same excuse that every dark mage gives right before we condemn him for having put hundreds of lives at stake for his own benefit", Loivissa argued.

"And then how would you have preferred that I deal with unruly mages?", Mercury asked as he let his right hand glide along the metal case surrounding and protecting the amethyst inside, "would you have preferred that I chop off their heads every time that they broke the law? These amethysts have allowed me to sentence a mage to the same prison sentence that I would give a non-mage for the exact same crimes, as we both know that continually drugging someone is hardly an effective or cheap way of keeping a mage contained".

Loivissa did not say anything for a while, before she finally let out a defeated sounding sigh and meekly asked, "what do you want?"

"I want to give you the offer of being reunited with Adûn and be free to fly the skies as you wish", Mercury answered evenly.

"What would I have to give in return?", Loivissa growled.

"Nothing more than that you would have to swear that you would not hinder me in completing my work of unifying the world under one banner, and that you would not attempt any actions that might jeopardize the security of the Alliance or any of its interests", Mercury answered her calmly.

"Uniting the world under one banner? That is the same madness that the mad king spouted", Loivissa snorted.

"His idea was not wrong, you know", Mercury responded calmly, "Galbatorix was just too incompetent to see it through. Would it not be better if the entire world was united? There would be no more wars between countries because one wanted the other's lands and no more division by where you came from. Think about it; would such a world not be worth fighting for?"

"My brother will stop you", Loivissa growled as a response, "it will not be the same as the last time someone tried to invade us. Alagaësia stands united now".

"Oh, I already know that your brother will attempt to stop me", Mercury smirked, "even as we speak, he rallies more volunteers from the villages of all of the nations of Alagaësia to join up with the grand army that they are gathering. The people look to him for hope because he is the son of the Shadeslayers, but do you want to know what amuses me the most about it all? His efforts are futile and the more men that he gathers to fight, the more will ultimately have to die.

You see, even though the royals of Alagaësia feared me so much that they sent representatives to act in their stead, I still got everything that I had set out to get from that meeting; you".

"I?", Loivissa asked confused.

"Yes, in all of Alagaësia, the one person that could have possibly predicted my movements and strategies was you, and thanks to the delegates so vehemently demanding that you aid them in their negotiations, as I knew that they would, you never even once suspected that my one and only goal with those negotiations was to capture and imprison you", Mercury smirked as he watched her realize that the meeting had been done solely to get her within his grasp, and she had fell for it without a second thought, "do not get me wrong, if the delegates had been willing to even begin to negotiate their peaceful admission into my Alliance, I would have put the invasion on hold, but as I had predicted it, they did not, which have led us to where we are now".

"I take it back", Loivissa said relatively calmly, "you are even madder than the mad king ever was. The dragon riders WILL stop you".

"I take it that that means that you will not agree to join me then?", Mercury said jovially as he rose from his crouching position with the lump of rye bread in his left hand.

"I would rather watch all my friends burn in front me while I was left alone than ever join you", Loivissa growled at him.

"As you wish", Mercury chuckled and tossed her the rye bread, "although, if you ever want to stand a chance of fulfilling those morbid thoughts of yours, then you need your strength to do so".

As he made his way out of her cell, Mercury could practically feel the scathing look that was burning itself into his back, but nevertheless, as he unlocked the cell door and proceeded outside, he also heard the distinct but faint noise of someone chewing.

All in all, the visit had accomplished what he had wanted for it to, and he was certain that given enough time, she would eventually begin to play the way he wanted her to. There truly was no way of turning back now, not after he had begun to guide her unto the path that he had set out for her.

_I have sacrificed too much already to allow anything to stand in my way_, Mercury mused as he ascended the stairs that would lead up to the walls of the citadel, _the lives of millions of people, my own soul and the sanctity of my mind that I sacrificed to keep It contained. All of it will have been for nothing if I should stop now, at the apex of tomorrow_.

_No matter the cost, I will not let it all be in vain_, Mercury concluded as he reached the walls that faced east.

Down in the streets of Teirm, you could see the columns of soldiers marching out of the eastern gate of Teirm as they marched towards what Mercury hoped to be the last truly major battle that would ever have to be fought among the inhabitants of this world.

The steel spears that rose up from all through the long column caught the setting sun's light and reflected it in such a way that it looked like thousands and thousands of little stars twinkled in and out of existence.

"Your move", Mercury said as he faced eastwards.

* * *

So...anyone wanna guess whether he has crossed the Moral Even Horizon yet(from which there is no return)?

Also, I do not know why, but every time that I read the part where Mercury leaves Loivissa in the cell, I keep hearing the green Day song "I walk alone" in my head. Seriously, try listening to the song while imagining his walk out of there.  
And on that note, the start of the music to Jedi Temple March from episode 3 fits really well to when he is overseeing the columns marching out.


	7. Mist and shadow

Happy Mammoth Monday.

This chapter will technically be set before the previous one, but that would have screwed up how I wanted to present them, so here it is. Enjoy.

* * *

**Mist and shadow**

**Evandar POV  
**It had been five days since that bastard to Mercury Iridium had betrayed their good faith, somehow overpowered all of the delegations and the two dragon rider guards, his little sister among them, and had launched an invasion that had surprised everyone and had resulted in the loss of their entire northern coastline.

How exactly he had done it, no one knew, as word had only gotten out of what had happened after the bastard himself had dared to contact the high king of the Empire on behalf of the high king's representative and had then informed the high king of what had happened.

_How did he do it? We had hundreds of guards ready to stop any attack from the men on his ships in Teirm and none of our patrol ships saw any signs of an invasion fleet until the next day_, Evandar mused on a conundrum that had plagued him ever since he had learned of it, _and why did he choose to inform us in the first place, when he could have easily been halfway to Ilirea before we figured out what was happening? What is he planning?_

Although Evandar had tried night after night to figure out what Mercury's motivations behind doing so could be, he had not come any closer to an actual answer to it yet. It simply did not make any sense to Evandar that he should warn his enemies instead of fully utilizing the confusion and surprise to its limit.

His little sister might have known why Mercury had done as he had, or she would at the very least have had the best chance of knowing it, but she had unfortunately been assigned as a guard to the meeting and no one had heard from her since.

In fact, no one had heard from any of the dragon riders that had been stationed in Teirm, Narda or Kuasta since that day, which only added another mystery to the already quite full bundle of them, as it should have been neigh on impossible for any one man to singlehandedly capture or kill more than 15 dragon riders and their dragons in three different cities before at least one pair could escape.

_Little one, you have wracked your brain with these questions for five days now, and you have come no closer to understanding the nature of the oath-breaker's mind_, Delvaria, Evandar's female golden dragon, said sympathetically, _instead of focusing on why he acts as he does, you should focus on how we stop him. We do after all have the meeting today_.

_Yeah, I know_, Evandar replied tiredly, _but my mind just cannot stop thinking of why he does as he does. I feel that if I could just understand his motives, then perhaps I would be better prepared to stop him_.

_His motives are simple; he wishes power over all of Alagaësia and the destruction of the dragon riders, but I do not think that you could understand his mind even if you tried for a hundred years_, Delvaria replied, _he is likely as mad as the mad-king once was and can therefore not be reasoned with or fully understood by any sane person_.

_Yes, I suppose that you are right_, Evandar conceded.

The meeting that Delvaria was speaking of was the meeting between all of the royals of Alagaësia and the dragon riders, which were represented by Evandar, whom had currently taken command of the dragon riders, as the previous leader had been in Teirm when Mercury had betrayed their trust and neither had any word arrived from Estildirin since that day.

The meeting's purpose was to plan their combined counterattack to the invasion, as was stipulated in the Second Osilon Treaty, which dictated that if any of the Alagaësian nations were to be threatened by an outside party, then all of the other nations and the dragon rider order would have to help them repel the threat.

The treaty had been drafted after the Second Ra'zac War had ended and an acknowledgement for the need of such a binding promise between the nations had been made abundantly clear. Already, the various leaders had called for their people to begin mustering for battle, and the dragon riders from all across Alagaësia were flocking to their HQ in Ilirea to be ready for what was to come.

A knock was heard from outside of the lead rider's office, which Evandar had since taken up in his absence, and after Evandar had allowed him entrance, the dragon rider called Aryan came inside.

Aryan was an almost three hundred years old medium height human dragon rider with a black goatee, a pair of green eyes and an altogether average appearance for any human. In fact, if his red male dragon Rueben was not with him, he was often mistaken for an average human by the people around him, though Evandar was pretty sure that the dragon riders that did so were mostly teasing him.

"The dragon riders of New Melian are reporting for duty, Evandar-elda", Aryan reported while twisting his hand over his sternum.

"It is good that you made it unharmed" , Evandar replied curtly, "now, go ask Bjorn about where you can find lodgings".

"Yes, at once Evandar-elda", Aryan replied and quickly left again.

As he walked through the door, Evandar sighed at how little there was of his precious daughter, now long since deceased, in the man. Even his green eyes looked different than Evandar's own or from the ones that his daughter had had, but Evandar supposed that you could only ask for so much to look the same after five generations of mixing blood with other humans. Six, if you counted Evandar's own mixing with his late mate, Celiste.

It had certainly not been easy for Evandar to watch as his only daughter refused to even touch a dragon egg and therefore had to slowly grow old and die in front of his very eyes, while he remained as youthful on the outside as ever, but time had taught Evandar how to accept that he could simply not change things.

And then, when his daughter's great great great grandson had been chosen by an egg to become a dragon rider, Evandar had hardly been able to cope with it. There had simply been so little of Helen in the boy that he might as well have been a complete stranger, and yet, Evandar knew that he was not, and that thought arose every time that Aryan was in sight of Evandar.

It did not help that the boy had been completely average in everything that he did, as Evandar clearly remembered that his Helen had been gifted. That was why Evandar preferred not to deal overly much with Aryan, as he kept comparing him to his long dead daughter, and it was not fair to the boy to constantly be judged as such.

The fact that Loivissa did not seem to be bothered by it only further alienated Evandar from the boy, though he could admit that his sister was not likely to be the best candidate to ask about such things, as her heart had been sealed shut ever since she had returned from the war four centuries ago.

In fact, when Evandar had confronted her about whether Aryan reminded her of Helen at all, her only response had been to take a quick look at the boy, before she had looked back at him and had quite bluntly told Evandar that there might be a little of Helen in the boy, but she would regard him as no different than any other dragon rider.

His little sister's change was just another of the many offenses that Evandar planned to make the bastard, Mercury Iridium, pay for.

_Little one, we should depart soon if you wish to make it to the high king's scrying chamber before the meeting starts_, Delvaria interrupted his thoughts, which might actually have been for the best.

_Yes, you are right. I have wasted enough time needlessly fussing in here already_, Evandar replied and made his way to the balcony, which he jumped out of in time to land on the back of his beloved dragon.

It was not long after that Evandar found himself in the royal scrying chamber of Ilirea, with his royal highness High King Aldoran on his left side and an array of scrying mirrors spread out in a half-circle in front of the pair, which each held the image of one of Alagaësia's monarchs, though a little of Blödhgarm's blue fur could be seen behind the figure of Evandar's grandmother.

The high king of the Empire was a plump little man with a large stomach that was only held up by the specially tailored clothes that he wore. The dwarven king was a robust little dwarf with a long grey beard that split into two braids, and he had a large scar running back from the corner of his left lip and all the way to his ear, courtesy of the last clan war. The urgal representative was actually a kull that was the Nar of the Ushnark tribe, and even compared to all the urgals that Evandar knew, this one still looked very intimidating. Regrettably though, Delvaria was far too large to fit inside the room, so she had to listen in through Evandar.

An uncomfortable silence stretched across the room as no one seemed to be willing to be the first to breach the subject that was on everyone's mind. Eventually though, it was the human monarch next to Evandar that broke it by drawing a loud sigh, before he said, "rider Evandar, are you sure that you have received no new word from Estildirin since that day?"

"I am afraid so", Evandar had to admit, "any attempts to contact or otherwise scry my fellow dragon riders have been met with nothing but failure".

"Then we will have to assume the worst and proceed accordingly", Islanzadi reasoned coldly, "how many dragon riders are still accounted for?"

"With the losses of those that tried to help the imperial navy, only 133 dragon riders remain in Alagaësia", Evandar reported, "I have ordered all but those stationed on the southern coastline to head for Ilirea in preparation for our response to this invasion. I have also sent some of those riders out to try and persuade the wild dragons in Alagaësia to join forces with us, as I am sure that many will come when they learn of the threat that Mercury poses to all of Alagaësia".

"That will have to do then", Islanzadi nodded, "my own people have begun flocking to help defend Alagaësia after information about the attack on the dragon rider city was leaked, though we have omitted the fact that we have lost contact with them and instead begun suggesting that there is no way that the dragon riders could have lost. How are the other nations faring in fulfilling their ends of the treaty?"

"Many urgalgra rams are gathering their axes and leaving their homes even as we speak", the representative of the united urgal tribes said, "my people ache for a proper fight, the likes of which we have not seen for ages".

"And the dwarves", Islanzadi asked coldly.

"It takes time for the dwarves to gather from our mountain homes and prepare the supplies needed for the trek to aid you, but the dwarven army should be in Ilirea in two months", King Olaf answered.

"That is not good enough", Evandar commented, "how much time can you cut off if you are given supplies by the Empire on the road instead?"

"But that would cost the Empire a fortune", High King Aldoran interjected.

"Two weeks, perhaps three if we hurry, but then we will not have the strength to fight properly when we arrive, lad", King Olaf ignored the high king's outburst and answered Evandar directly.

"Make it two weeks then", Evandar also ignored the scandalized look on the high king's face as his opinion was being cut out of the loop, "it is better that you are ready to fight a week later than that you are half-dead and in need of recovering a week earlier".

"Now, wait a minute", High King Aldoran puffed up his not so small stomach and said, though the action really only made him look more like a turkey, "you cannot just go making promises on the Empire's behalf. I am the high king, and I should have a say in these matters!"

"Your highness, if I may clarify something", Islanzadi said icily, "currently, you have no other forces in Ilirea than your usual city guards, and given that our enemy have an unidentified number of men under his command, it would be wise for us to join forces as soon as possible, or we might be beaten separately. Naturally, since it was your navy that failed to discover the threat and your cities that have been invaded, we, as your allies, can only ask that you help us mobilize our forces to come to YOUR aid as soon as possible, or is that too unreasonable, because if you do not need our help, then the rest of us could concentrate on figuring out what has happened to Estildirin".

"Now, now, let us not be hasty here", the high king said with nervousness all too evident in his features, "it is not that I was opposed to providing the supplies, but just that I felt that it was my right as high king to be asked before such decisions were made on my behalf".

Evandar knew that if his grandmother wanted to, she could make the high king sweat even more than he already was with just a small sign of displeasure, but although Evandar had never really liked the man, he still chose to save him from further embarrassment by intervening in this unproductive discussion, "I meant no ill intent, your highness. I just assumed that as many of your other royal duties are being handled by representatives without them having to consult you on every little detail, this particular detail would be too obvious for it to require your counsel".

"Oh, uhm, yes, of course", High King Aldoran said with relief at being able to change the topic, "and as for my own forces; I believe that my generals said that they will have mustered an army of over 150.000 men by the time that your forces should arrive".

"And what of the imperial navy then?", the dwarven king asked.

"Uhm, most of my ships were actually docked in either Teirm, Narda or Kuasta, so I am afraid that it have been heavily diminished, and to add further grievance to our woes; what still remains intact of it is now being hunted down in my very own waters", the high king announced timidly.

"Then they can hardly be called your waters any more, your highness", Islanzadi said and made the honorific sound like an insult, but also just so far away that it was not considered an actual insult, "though this brings to mind another failure of your government; how did an entire enemy army slip past your patrol ships unnoticed and manage to capture three of your most important cities, of which one of them was on high alert and which is supposed to be famous for being built defensively?"

"Yes, I have been wondering about that as well", the dwarven king joined in, "you assured us that the guards that he brought with him were carefully monitored and guarded and that you had doubled the amount of city guards on the walls, as well as the patrols guarding the sea, and yet, in the simple span from I talked with my representative that very same noon and until you contacted us that very same night, after having been informed of the events by the invading warlord, I might add, Mercury Iridium somehow managed to not only capture the city that he himself was in, but also two others that he was not even close to".

"Yes, but, well, you see, my patrols still maintain that there were no ships of any kind for that entire day", the high king said, as he fiddled with his plump little hands, "I truly have no idea of how he managed to get his forces behind my patrols, but could it be possible that he has mystic powers like in the legends, which grants him the ability to summon dead armies at will and move wherever he wishes to, even through solid walls?"

"That man is nothing more than a regular human turned ageless, which relies on tricks and cons to pull off his so-called mystic powers", Evandar responded, "he was like that nearly six and a half centuries ago, he was like that four centuries ago and he will most likely still be like that today. If you ever find yourself to think anything else, then that is because he has fooled you".

"Do not talk of that which you do not know, grandchild of mine", Islanzadi interjected, "while much of what you say is true, the fact of the matter still stands that this person has been known to elude the reaches of the Empire's mage's order for centuries, as well as using his so-called tricks to circumvent many things that we to this day still hold to be the rules of nature. He is not to be underestimated".

"My apologizes, your highness" , Evandar bowed his head to Islanzadi, "I did not mean it like that, but simply wanted to make sure that everyone were aware that individually, he is no more powerful than any other human mage".

"But why did he contact us to let us know of what had happened?", King Olaf asked, "if he is as dangerous and clever as you make him out to be, then he must surely have known that he could have taken Ilirea before any of us had time to muster any counterattack that was strong enough to repel him?"

"As my dragon mentioned to me earlier; we cannot rule out the possibility that he went as mad as the mad king when his partner, the dragon named Kilgharrah, died", Evandar suggested, "therefore, it is possible that he does not think like we do, but in an entirely other fashion, which does not necessarily make him less dangerous, but it will certainly make him more unpredictable".

"I suppose that you do have a point in that, though I must admit to being ignorant on the effects of such a loss", King Olaf acknowledged his premise.

"Why are we even bothering with this discussion?", the kull asked with a frown, "the solution to our problems seems simple enough. We muster our forces in Ilirea and when we are at full strength, we meet our adversary in glorious combat and chop off his head. Problems solved".

"But we must remember that he might be planning for us to do just that", Evandar argued, "if we leave our homes undefended in our rush to do battle, then he might manage to somehow slip a small force past our lookouts and take them while we are gone".

"The lad has a point", King Olaf agreed, "but allowing for his forces to dig even deeper in than they already have would also be detrimental to ousting him, and we must not forget that if we can capture or kill Mercury, then his forces will most likely lose their reason for being here and become disorganized, so if we proceed as the kull suggests, then we should still be able to win the war by winning that particular battle".

"But how can we be sure that he will even be with the forces that we end up fighting?", High King Aldoran asked, "I find it far more likely that he would hang back and wait while his troops does the fighting for him".

"I disagree with that assumption", Islanzadi countered, "according to what we know, Mercury Iridium have never been the type to hang back while his men fight in his stead, and I believe that his presence during the meeting confirms this, as he could have easily sent a representative in his stead, but chose to come himself".

"I agree with the elven queen", Evandar concurred, "from what I remember of my sister's report, he liked to direct the important battles himself, so I find it unlikely that he should choose to stay out of such an important battle as it will certainly be when we clash with his army. Furthermore, even if he divides his men up into smaller fractions and manages to send them past us, then we will only have an easier time crushing his main force, before our larger army can then swing back and crush the minor ones that have slipped past us".

"I suppose that you do have a point", King Olaf grunted, "which then leads us to whom we would choose to lead our combined armies".

"I would like to volunteer, as I believe that I am the only one that has the necessary experience with all of the races to properly make them fight as one", Evandar said, "I am furthermore one of the only ones left that have any experience whatsoever with our adversary and his way of thinking, though I would like to compare notes with the elven queen on what she remembers about him".

"Yes, it seems only fitting that the son of the Shadeslayers should be the one to save us from this new threat", the urgal representative agreed, "it was your father, the firesword, that ended the mad king's reign and allowed the urgalgra to join the ranks of the dragon riders, and it was your sister that vanquished the shade threat so many years ago and who engineered the end of the Second Ra'zac War, so it truly seems proper that it should be you who defends our home from this new threat".

"The dwarves will follow your lead, lad", King Olaf said gravely, "do not let us down".

"The elves are willing to adhere to your command, if you promise to not leave us behind as we go east to find out what has really happened in Estildirin", Islanzadi proposed sharply.

"That will be an easy promise to make, your highness", Evandar replied as he dipped his head in gratitude for his grandmother promising to help him figure out what had happened to his parents and the rest of the order.

"I suppose that if everyone else is in agreement, then I have no choice but to say yes as well", King Aldoran conceded as well.

"Then we are all in agreement about how to proceed then", Evandar summarized, "which means that this meeting is at its end. I wish you all luck in your endeavours and hope to see you in person before too long. May good fortune rule over you all".

"And may the stars watch over you as well", Islanzadi responded before her mirror went blank, which was one by one followed by all of others as well.

When Evandar was alone in the room, save for the plump little human king, he made a mental vow in the Ancient language that no matter what it took, he would find a way to free his sister from Mercury's grasp and save Alagaësia from him.

Only then did he leave the room to start the efforts of gathering the grand army that would help him accomplish his promise.

* * *

Uhhh, a storm is gathering.


	8. Cloud and shade

**Cloud and shade**

**Mercury POV(a month and a half into the invasion)  
**Mercury was sitting in his office in Teirm, as he worked out the last details of his overall campaign in Alagaësia, before he would then later go join up with the rest of the three Swords that he had brought with him, which he had tasked with setting up and defending the only clear cut way through the Spine.

The Alagaësian rulers were doing exactly as he wanted them to; gathering the large majority of their forces outside of Ilirea in preparation to take on his forces head on in an attempt to reclaim their homeland.

It had not exactly been hard for Mercury to orchestrate events as he wanted them to play out, not after he had learned of the Second Osilon Treaty, which almost made it far too easy for him to gather all of his opponents' forces in one spot, thereby leaving their homelands virtually undefended.

They would soon learn the error of their ways, as the Eight and Eleventh Swords were scheduled to land in Reavsten a week from now, where they would then make quick work of the city, before they were ordered to move northeast to take Aberon and then further east to take all of the Beor-mountains.

While the Eight and Eleventh Swords were busy taking southern Alagaësia, the Third and Ninth Swords were to invade Du Weldenvarden from their northern stronghold of Coldharbour, which was both a city on the northernmost coast of Alagaësia that Mercury had originally had built specifically to house his northern invasion force, as well as the name of the province that covered all of the lands north of Du Weldenvarden.

It was not a particularly inhabited province, as the large majority of its population was actually the Third and Ninth Swords, but some settlers from The Northern Wastes had begun to immigrate into the province. It was also not a coincidence that it was the Third and Ninth Swords that had been stationed there, as the two of them were commonly referred to as two of the three Winter Swords of the Alliance, as they both specialized in waging war in artic provinces.

To be honest, Mercury had found the soldiers' naming of the city, and the entire province in general, to be rather bland, though he supposed that it was what he should expect when asking soldiers to name a harbour in a province that largely consisted of a frozen tundra.

Mercury certainly could not claim that he had always been imaginative when it came to naming conquered provinces, though most of his unoriginal names were at the least not completely transparent to anyone that would lay eyes on them.

It was one of the reasons why Mercury preferred to negotiate a peaceful admittance into the Alliance, as only newly settled or conquered provinces were to be given new names, while nations that voluntarily joined were allowed to keep their original names.

When a nation had been conquered, it was usually the prerogative of the officer that had commanded the campaign to name the province, though it was not stipulated as such by law, and since many of the supreme commanders only ever got the chance to name a single province, they would more often put more thought into the name than a veteran at it, like Mercury, would. For instance, Mercury's last renaming had mostly been done on a whim the moment that the topic had come up, with no thought before or after as to whether the name suited the place or not.

A knock on the door shook him out of his reverie, and after quickly covering up some sensitive documents on the desk, Mercury bade the unknown person to enter. As it turned out, the unknown person was simply his aide de camp, Ilumëo Uluth, and seeing as he did not need to hide his plans from her, he removed the covering from the documents immediately after seeing that she was alone.

"Status?", Mercury asked her as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"As per your orders, your forces have occupied the pass and according to my latest reports, the SEC report that with the commandeered manpower from the Second and Fifth Swords, they should be ready for when the enemy forces are expected to have massed in Ilirea", Ilumëo reported.

The SEC, or the Special Engineering Corps, were the best trained engineers in the entire Alliance, and it was them that made seemingly impossible project suddenly become possible, which Mercury would readily testify to, as he had on more than one occasion sent the SEC to help his forces cross seemingly insurmountable obstacles that had blocked their path.

Every Sword technically had its own engineers in order to take care of smaller issues and obstacles, but the SEC members were far more valuable than any of those, which reflected in their pay and the near ludicrous efforts that it took just to get accepted into the training program for the SEC, which lasted for a minimum of five whole years, before they even got a chance to graduate and become full-fledged members.

"Understood", Mercury nodded at the information, "what about Supreme Commander Rowannon and his further objectives?"

"The supreme commander has reported that the entrance has been located and that the cargo is being secured and is expected to be ready to move out in a little under a month", Ilumëo stated, "he furthermore added that after learning what exactly it was that he was dealing with, he ordered his men to cease restoration efforts on all targets above 25 cm in diameter, as he deemed those above that threshold to be too dangerous to approach, even with your suggested precautions".

"I see", Mercury murmured, "inform the supreme commander that I will personally take care of the targets above the threshold once they arrive, and remind him that he is to use the utmost of discretion when handling this subject, as the entire Alliance could be in jeopardy if the wrong people found out about it".

"I will be sure to remind him of that", Ilumëo nodded and scribbled it down in the folder that she always carried with her.

When she did not immediately leave after having given her report, Mercury arched an eyebrow at her and asked, "was there anything else?"

"Yes, there is one other subject that requires your attendance", she said hesitantly, as if she would rather not deal with this at all, "my cousin's troops seized priority target three two days ago. The mercenaries sent to ambush the target suffered major casualties, but where eventually able to subdue her and bring her here. Upon her arrival, the woman asked to see you in person, and though the mercenaries laughed at her, she insisted that you would wish to see her as well".

"Oh, I see", Mercury smirked slightly, "tell them to send her in".

"But I discussed the matter with Commander Elladan as well, and he was even more opposed to having that woman in the same room as you", Ilumëo objected.

"Tell the commander that although I appreciate his efforts as the head of my Varangian Guard, I choose who I can and cannot see", Mercury overruled any objections.

"…I understand, my lord", Ilumëo obliged hesitantly.

It was a clear sign to Mercury that his aide clearly did not wish for him to risk the danger of the meeting, as it had been decades since she had stopped constantly referring to him as 'my lord' or 'Lord Mercury', but her discomfort at the meeting was a price that she had to pay, as Mercury knew that he needed to settle this matter before he left to command the battle that would no doubt soon take place.

It was only a little while after Ilumëo had mentally given the go ahead that the doors once again opened to allow entrance to Commander Elladan, Mercury's pet panther and two dökkálfar soldiers that were each holding one of the arms of the seemingly young woman between the two of them, who no doubt also had her arms bound behind her back.

Commander Elladan was a human in his late forties, who had served in Mercury's Varangian Guard for the past 22 years, and had taken over as commander of the Guard seven years ago. Despite his age, he had broad shoulders, well-trained limbs and he was oftentimes more deadly in a melee than many of the younger soldiers.

Mercury did not miss the fact that Mushu had arrived as well, which he was sure was because Ilumëo had secretly asked the panther to, as no one but he himself and her were able to order it to do anything, and nor did he miss that although he had not requested the commander of his Guard to be here, along with two of his best men, they still were.

"Was all of this really necessary?", Mercury asked amused as he studied how Commander Elladan had strategically placed himself between himself and the captive, despite her being bound and held by two of his strongest men, and that each of the three already had one hand prepared to draw their weapons at a moment's notice.

"I read the report, my lord", Elladan responded in a gravely serious tone, "I know what this...kaliri can do, and as the head of your Guard, it is my duty to ensure your safety".

Mercury arched an eyebrow at the commander's use of his home province's name for a woman that had unnatural abilities, which were more often than not associated with the devil of their particular religion, but chose not to further comment on that issue.

"Though I understand your concern, it is not needed at the moment", Mercury said nonchalantly, "untie her hands".

"But, my lord, she is too dangerous!", Commander Elladan protested.

"I do not recall asking for your permission", Mercury said with a hint of warning present in his tone, "now, untie her and wait outside until I am done with her".

Mercury could easily see through his commander's shell to witness the battle inside of him, as his duty to obey his lord's commands warred with his duty to protect his lord at all costs, but eventually, the commander grit his teeth said, "…untie her".

The two other guards hesitantly did as they were told, before the three of them made a small bow to Mercury and left the office.

"You may stay", Mercury stopped Ilumëo as she began to follow the others out with Mushu in tow, which made the two of them take up positions on his right side and slightly behind him.

"Well, that was interesting", Angela said somewhat amusedly, as she rubbed her wrists where she had been bound, "but did you really need to go to such lengths to find little old me?"

"I doubt that you would have come if I had simply asked", Mercury commented as he folded his hands in front of him.

"And now we will never know, will we", Angela commented nonchalantly, "so, how have you been since we last spoke. Have you seen any red-eyed rabbits on your journey, but oh what am I asking, of course you have, just look at you and what you have done".

"Are you implying that I might have gone mad from being bitten by a rabbit?", Mercury asked slightly irritated at the topic, as it certainly was not one that he wished to discuss right now, "because I would like to inform you that although I have seen such a creature on my way, it unfortunately dissolved before I could put it in a stew".

"Was that a joke?", Angela asked with an exasperated look, "but with a hint of truth to it as well. Oh, you always are such a boring person to talk to, though the road that you are on is far more entertaining to watch".

"Yes, that is actually what I would like to discuss with you", Mercury said seriously, "you see, the road that I am on is not one that gives a lot of room for unexpected disruptions, so I am afraid that I cannot allow you to meddle with it any further".

"Pish posh, any road with no room for sidetrips is a dull road", Angela replied, "but then again, you never were one to like it when things did not go your way. Elva was proof of that".

"Come now, if you had cared at all about her, then you would have known better than to let things unfold as they did", Mercury said indifferently, "you chose not to interfere and therefore chose to let Elva continue down a path that could only lead to her death, but make no mistake in thinking that I am angry with you for doing so, as your non-interference is exactly what I wish for you to do again this time".

"Hmm? Oh, of course, now I see", Angela suddenly exclaimed, "but you should note that I have become rather attached to this particular corner of the world and would hate for it to be ruined".

"Then it is fortunate that I would like for you to become attached to the rest of the world as well", Mercury said with a hint of a smirk tugging at his lips, "I have already provided a ship and a crew for you to go see exactly what it is that these natives are fighting to not be a part of, and I expect you to be on it when it leaves tonight".

"Are you trying to exile me?", Angela asked with a frown.

"Think of it as a vacation", Mercury answered her, "you will be allowed to return here after I am done, but not a moment before. You really should use this opportunity to expand your horizon".

"And if I refuse?", Angela asked sceptically.

"You do not want to do that", Mercury answered evenly and without blinking.

Mercury could see Angela tense at the evenness of his tone and the implication that it carried. She would know from it that even though he was not wearing his signet ring, he still believed himself to be fully capable of matching and even besting her without delusions of grandeur clouding his judgement.

For a long time, the two of them did not move a single muscle as both of them continued to stare intently into the other's eyes, and to any outside viewer, it no doubt looked like a mental battle was being fought, though no such thing was actually happening at the moment.

What was happening was that both of them were sizing up their opponent and simultaneously trying to let the other know just how bad it would be for him or her to try anything. No visible displays of power were present during this, as both parties knew the futility of wasting energy on such displays when facing such a dangerous opponent.

In those tense moments, the actions of the two of them could best be compared to two wild animals that were both trying to look as frightening as possible in order to convince the other to submit without it coming to a fight, and if any of them had had the natural tendencies to do so, Mercury knew that both of them would be bristling, showing their teeth and hissing at each other.

Eventually though, Angela submitted by closing her eyes and bowing her head down in defeat, as she grit out, "FINE, my lord, I will do as you say".

"Good choice", Mercury said without sounding smug, before he raised his voice to let it be heard outside of the office, "you may come in now".

The two dökkálfar guards and Commander Elladan quickly came inside the room again, and upon noticing the tense atmosphere in it, the commander asked a simple, "my lord?"

"Please escort our guest to her vessel", Mercury requested nicely, "she has agreed to take a little trip".

"And the werecat that was with her, my lord?", Commander Elladan asked.

"If Solembum wants to join her on her journey, he may, but if not, then release him with the message that as long as the werecats do not try to hinder or sabotage our efforts, their previous arrangement with the Empire will be transferred to our provincial government when we get it up and running".

"Are you sure it would be wise to let such a character go free?", Commander Elladan questioned.

"One captured werecat hardly makes a difference", Mercury replied nonchalantly, "besides, if the cat chooses not to stay in Alagaësia, I will still need to find someone else to deliver the message".

"I understand. It shall be as you command", Commander Elladan acknowledged, as he and his men escorted Angela out, but before the herbalist was completely out of the door, she managed to shout over her shoulder, "remember, no mushrooms this time!", before the door closed.

"What did she mean by that?", Ilumëo, who had remained silent throughout the meeting, asked.

"Nothing important", Mercury answered tiredly as he reclined in the chair, "when am I scheduled to leave for the front?"

"I had originally scheduled you to leave this afternoon, but after this meeting, I am rescheduling it to be tomorrow afternoon, as I expect that you wish to remain here until you can be sure that the herbalist is dealt with", Ilumëo answered.

"Yes, that was thoughtful of you. Thank you", Mercury thanked her as he let out a sigh.

"I must admit that I am curious as to why you went to such lengths to simply be rid of that woman", Ilumëo said curiously, "if she was such a dangerous player to your plans, would it not be better for her to have simply…ceased to exist?"

"Trying to have her killed would have been too much of waste of resources in comparison with what I would get out of it", Mercury answered, "sending her away with nothing but a hurt pride was the less demanding option".

"I see…", Ilumëo murmured thoughtfully, "is she immortal?"

"No!", Mercury answered firmly, "she is simply hard to be rid of".

It was true that Mercury did not believe in immortality, not real immortality anyway, as he fully believed that no matter how tough someone or something was to kill, and how it could potentially live forever if left undisturbed, it was still possible to kill anything and anyone with the right amount of effort and ingenuity.

Though he still maintained this belief, he did have more than a few creatures locked away in the hidden cellars deep down in the mountain upon which his ice fortress, Winter's Crown, was built, which were beginning to test his patience on what it took to finally kill them once and for all.

It simply was inevitable for someone in Mercury's position, and with the amount of years that he had lived, not to meet creatures that were too dangerous to everything around them to be allowed to roam free, but which were unfortunately also oftentimes very hard to kill with conventional methods.

Just a few years ago, Mercury had had to add another creature to his collection, as the scouts from Coldharbour had accidentally awoken something that had been hibernating in some ruins northwest of Du Weldenvarden. It had taken significant effort from the Third Sword, under Mercury's direct command, to subdue it after its awakening.

The creatures were simply another reason why Mercury had chosen to have his fortress built where he had, as even if they somehow managed to escape captivity, there would be nothing but frozen tundra around them, and since most of them were used to warmer climates, they would most likely either choose to simply go back into hibernation or simply freeze to a still living clump of ice in the middle of nowhere.

Though if all went well with his plans, then such mundane issues would soon enough no longer be of any concern to him.

**Loivissa POV  
**Loivissa did not know how long she had been incarcerated in here, as the days flew by without any changes and the only indication to the passage of time was the changing of the guards and her own sleep rhythm.

She had started eating again shortly after His first visit, as she had been able to see that although He had clearly gone mad since Kilgharrah had died, His sense of pragmatism, twisted as it was, had not dulled and there truly was no need for her food to be drugged, thanks to those foul amethyst and their dark magic.

He had visited her again a few times after the first one, and although He tried to hide it, Loivissa knew that His goal was to once again manipulate her into doing His bidding, or at the very least, try to figure out her True Name, so that He could use that against her as well.

The rustling sounds of a lock being unlocked met her ears, and since she was the only occupant of this particular wing of the cells, she knew that it was most likely Him that had come down to try and ensnare her again, as her limited sense of time told her that it was not yet time for the guards to go their rounds.

Loivissa crept up into the darkest corner in her cell and tugged her legs up to her chest and used her crossed arms atop of them to hide her head from view, not that she expected Him to not be able to see her right away, but she simply wanted to show Him that she did not want Him to.

She could hear soft footsteps echo down the hall, before they stopped before her cell and waited there, as if searching for something. The footsteps had not sounded like His had, but Loivissa nonetheless kept her head down.

"What he sees in you, I clearly cannot", a female voice said, and in her surprise at it, Loivissa lifted her head to see His aide, Ilumëo, stand before her cell's door with a key visible in her hand.

"What do you want?", Loivissa growled at the woman.

"You. Gone", the woman said unkindly, as she unlocked the cell door and stepped inside, "hold still, I will unlock your chains right away".

"Do you think me stupid? I know that He is close by and is merely toying with me", Loivissa said and hissed at the intruder that had ventured into her little cell, which made Ilumëo stop dead in her tracks near the entrance.

"My lord does not know about this", Ilumëo sneered at Loivissa but kept her position.

"And I am supposed to believe that?", Loivissa laughed at the aide's pathetic attempt to assure her.

"**Very well**", Ilumëo grumbled, now in the Ancient language, which made Loivissa's eyes widen, "**my lord, Lord Commander Mercury of House Iridium, left to direct the battle against your brother's army a few days ago, and neither before nor after he left did he order me to set you free**".

"Set me free..?", Loivissa murmured uncomprehendingly, "you truly intend to set me free and not just lead me into an ambush of some kind?"

"**Yes, I intend to free you, and I swear that I have no knowledge of any ambushes or traps waiting for you during your escape**", Ilumëo promised, "now, will you let me free you or not? My window for doing this is closing swiftly and if it does, then I would rather leave you here than risk it simply to set you free".

"Why?", Loivissa asked uncomprehendingly, as she had been sure that this woman was fiercely loyal to Him, "why do this behind your master's back?"

"I am certainly not doing it for your sake", Ilumëo growled as she moved closer and knelt at Loivissa's feet, where the chain was secured, "I am doing this for my lord's sake. Though he cannot afford to show it to anyone, he cares about you and I know that he does not wish for you to be locked up in here until all his attempts at convincing you to simply let things be have failed and he will be forced to execute you. It would be far better for him to know that you are still alive somewhere out there, even though he can never see you again, which is why you must promise me not to in any way join the battle or he would be forced to have you killed on sight. Promise me this and I will let you go".

_So that is why she is doing this_, Loivissa realized, _not because she believes her master to be wrong, but because of some twisted sense of loyalty for Him_.

"**I promise not to join the upcoming battle between my brother and your master in any conceivable way**", Loivissa promised, though the promise did not restrict her from going after Him afterwards, and if she was to be honest, she knew that she could not affect the battle on her own.

Quickly enough, the chain came off, and although Loivissa had the distinct urge to knock out her unexpected rescuer, she knew that she was still trapped inside a city under His control and therefore needed her help to get out.

Ilumëo had apparently considered that possibility as well, as Loivissa saw her tense for a moment before it became clear that Loivissa had no intention of knocking her out.

"Follow me and keep quiet", Ilumëo said briskly and stood up, which was quickly copied by Loivissa, before the two of them began to sneak out of the dungeons.

As they walked through the halls, Loivissa noted that all of the guards were asleep, and she had a very distinct suspicion as to why that was, but chose not to comment on it, as it helped her own case at the moment.

"Where are you taking me?", Loivissa whispered after they had made a number of turns into hallways that were completely unlit and unguarded.

"To a tunnel that leads outside the city gates", Ilumëo whispered back, "from there, you will be able to go wherever you like, though I would advise against any settlements west of the Spine".

"And what of my possessions?", Loivissa asked as she realized that she did not even have a dagger to protect herself with, much less her own sword, though she supposed that Adûn would be more than enough to protect her until she got a new one.

"My lord added them to his personal collection, and I will not risk my position trying to retrieve them for you", Ilumëo sneered back. If it had not been so before, it was now perfectly clear that the aide cared nothing for Loivissa personally.

They continued to walk in almost complete darkness for another while, before Ilumëo finally stopped and whispered, "we are here. Go through the trapdoor a little further ahead and you will be free".

"Where have you asked Adûn to meet me once I am out?", Loivissa asked as she walked past the aide to find the wooden ladder leading up to the trapdoor.

"The dragon stays here", Ilumëo simply stated.

"What!?", Loivissa exclaimed, completely forgetting to be silent, "no, we are going back to get him as well! I will not leave him behind! I cannot leave him behind!"

"Shhh, woman", Ilumëo hushed, "there is no way that I could manage to sneak something so large out of here unnoticed, and I will not risk it all simply so that you do not have to separate from your pet".

Loivissa bristled at the aide's reference to Adûn as a pet, but calmed herself by telling herself that no foreigner could ever hope to understand what a dragon and its rider meant for each other.

"I figured that you might get upset about this, so I talked to the sea-blue dragon and after some convincing, he agreed that it was better that one of you were free than that both of you were captured", Ilumëo tried to calm her down, "he told me to tell you that he would endure until you come for him, and that the morning star shines brightest in the darkest of nights".

Those words…had definitely come from her Adûn, as there was no way that this woman before her would understand what he meant by it. It meant that he, her most beloved partner-of-heart-and-mind was willing to endure until the darkness that was His Alliance, had passed.

"I…I understand", Loivissa said saddened, and she could feel the tears threaten to spill as she moved past the woman and began her ascent of the ladder.

She had never before willingly separated herself from Adûn for such a long time as this was going to be if her brother did not win the upcoming battle, and as she heard Ilumëo take the first step back towards where they had come from, she began to weep openly at the thought of it, which was only made slightly more bearable by her having to have adjusted to the lack of his presence during her confinement.

It was with her tears streaming freely down her cheeks that she opened the trap door with some difficulty to usher in a fresh breeze of the cool night air.

* * *

So...Loivissa is free again and Angela have been exiled to prevent her from interfering in Mercury's business. Is it now that I am supposed to reveal that, when I wrote the script for this series, I had a list of all the characters that might be of concern or could interfere in any way, and one way or the other, I checked all the names off of that list.


	9. All shall fade

Happy Mammoth Monday!  
In case you have not noticed it yet, the names of the chapters so far have had a...shall we say, musical undercurrent to them, but alas, the song is swiftly nearing its end.  
Enjoy the verse!

* * *

**All shall fade**

**Evandar POV(2 months into the invasion)  
**Evandar had a queasy feeling churning around in his stomach. It was not one that he often had, hardly ever actually, but every time that he had had it, it had been because something had either gone horribly wrong or was just about to.

Sure, he could try to calm this feeling by constantly reminding himself of the same encouraging arguments that his fellow generals from their grand army constantly spouted, but somehow, those arguments just made the churning worse.

Somehow, the more times he heard that there simply was no chance that the enemy's force, which had been estimated to be just above 30.000 strong, would be able to beat their own grand army of just under a quarter of a million, not counting in the 123 dragon riders and 36 wild dragons that had agreed to participate in the fight, the less the argument seemed to hold any significance.

Logically, Evandar knew that even if the enemy somehow managed to fight ferociously and somehow avoid being surrounded and crushed by his side's much larger cavalry force, their ground troops still had to beat more than eight of his own ground troops, each, and among those ground troops was an elven force of 20.000 strong-willed veterans, where most had centuries of practice to fall back on.

The stout-hearted dwarves had supplied an army of just over 45.000 heavily armoured and short-tempered fighters, while the less populous urgal race had managed to gather 35.000 rams to the cause, which was an impressive force when you considered the urgal population as a whole, and the remaining 150.000 men were the mostly conscripted force of the Empire.

The enemy force on the other hand seemed to be made up of a mixture of regular humans and the hybrids that Loivissa had mentioned, which supposedly should not be as strong, fast or as good with magic as modern elves were, so if it had been a one-on-one fight between the two armies, then Evandar was fully convinced that the elven force alone would have been enough to wipe the floor with their enemies.

But it would not be a one-on-one fight between the soldiers in each army, and Evandar knew from his experience in the Second Ra'zac War that the elves' superior talents could not be fully utilized when they had to fight in formations, but even so, there still should not be a question as to whom would be the victor today.

And that was exactly what worried Evandar, because the odds were just too much in their favour for his liking, which had been a fairly strange concept to try and explain to the other generals and he had ultimately failed in doing so.

However much Mercury might have lost his sense of right and wrong, Evandar still knew that the bastard's wit was as sharp as ever. The carefully prepared and executed start of this war had been more than enough proof of that.

Originally, he and the rest of the generals had ascribed the sudden invasions of old Surda and Du Weldenvarden as his master plan, as the two other invasion forces, which reportedly were both smaller than the force standing before them right now, had been able to swoop in with hardly any resistance and take considerable amounts of land while all of the races' armies had gathered too far away to do something about them.

He could not allow their grand army to disband to take care of the other two invasion forces, as doing so would allow for the main one in front of them to take most of the heartland of the Empire with hardly any fight.

No, firstly, they had to defeat this force that blocked the only major pass through the Spine, before they could even consider splitting up and dealing with the smaller ones, and that was exactly as far as the other generals had been willing to admit that Mercury had played them from the start by using his early landing force as bait to lure them away from their homelands.

What they never seemed to be willing to take into consideration was that according to the last reports, Mercury was actively commanding THIS portion of his overall forces, which would be strange for him to do if he considered them, and, by default, himself, as nothing more than disposable bait.

Something was up, and it bothered Evandar to no end to not know what it was. He could vaguely remember that his sister had told him that during the end of their campaign together, Mercury had supposedly held off an enemy force that outnumbered his own even more so than Evandar's did, for almost an entire month, but if he remembered correctly, then that had been under completely different circumstances in regards to terrain and preparations.

If contact had not been lost with Estildirin, then Evandar could have asked for the report that had been stored there to be summarized to him, but since it had, he had to make do with what little he did remember.

It was not easy being the overall leader of such a grand army.

"Today shall be the day that we finally rid our homeland of this scourge", one of the human generals that stood inside Evandar's command tent and around the table with a map of their and their enemies' forces' positions on it, boasted in the early hours of the morning, "we have tried diplomacy, but it had no effect, so now, we must use the sword instead".

It was true, for the last two days, the two sides had been camped opposite of one another and had exchanged attempts, though feeble ones, at diplomacy via messengers in the no-man's land between the two, until all negotiations, if they could even be called that, had ceased last night when the Alliance's final ultimatum had arrived.

'Surrender and be spared, continue to oppose us and your lives shall be forfeit. Give us your answer tomorrow at dawn', it had said.

Evandar did not like the confidence behind the message, but neither could he deny the possibility that all of this could be one big bluff on Mercury's part. It certainly would not be the first time that he had managed to make a much larger force surrender simply by being so confident that his enemies believed it to be a trap.

"But we need to be careful as to how we approach this, as our opponent is known for keeping tricks up in his sleeve", Islanzadi argued from her position at the table, with Blödhgarm standing beside her as the silent but watchful bodyguard that Evandar had known him as for the past few centuries.

"The dragon rider scouts report that our infantry outnumbers his with almost nine to one, six to one in cavalry and three to one in siege engines, not to mention that we have total air superiority with the dragon riders and the wild dragons on our side", the same human general argued, "I do not care what trick he comes up with. There simply is no way for him to beat a force that vast. At worst, he will inflict heavy casualties on our side, but even if he does, we will still have cut off the head of the snake by capturing him".

No one could argue against the logical arguments, but Evandar still wanted to be cautious about how to approach this, "even so, let us not rush into battle headstrong by relying on numbers alone. As the overall commander of the grand army, I have the final say in how we fight, and I say that it is better to be cautious when facing a possible trap, if nothing else, then to minimize casualties".

"Then what is your battle-plan, lad?", King Olaf asked as he rested his hands on Volund's handle.

"We shall place our main infantry in a line opposing the enemy's, with our heaviest troops in the middle and our lighter ones at the flanks", Evandar started to explain as he moved pieces around on the table, "the Surdan cavalry will be split between guarding each flank, while our siege engines will be distributed in three groups, with the largest one in the centre and two smaller ones at our flanks. At first, the elves will join the archers as skirmish troops, but they should be ready to change into melee mode at a moment's notice. The dragons and their riders will be kept in reserve behind our lines for now".

The grand army's entire cavalry force consisted of the Surdan cavalry regiments that had long been prided on their excellent horsemanship and the Empire had therefore concentrated virtually all of its forces in that direction in old Surda, though the rams that Evandar placed in the middle would certainly count as heavy cavalry as well when they trampled forward on the battlefield.

"Does anyone have any quarrel with this arrangement?", Evandar asked as he finished setting up what he expected to be the starting position of both forces, and after a general murmur of consent from all involved, he continued, "then the battle will begin at noon. You are all dismissed".

As the monarchs and their generals filed out of his command tent to begin preparing the troops for battle, Evandar began on the arduous task that was crafting an inspirational speech that would transcend the racial boundaries and give extra courage to all of his men.

By the time that noon finally came and both sides stood opposite of one another, Evandar had finished it to a somewhat satisfactory degree, though it would be too late to change it now, when he was sitting atop Delvaria on the flat green pastures in front of the grand army.

The enemy on the other side of the flat grassland had deployed their infantry force in a straight line that was thinner and shorter than Evandar's was, while they had seemingly copied Evandar's choice of having their cavalry spread out on their two flanks, but to his surprise, they had gathered their onagers behind the centre of their formation and had nothing to defend their flanks with, except for their cavalry and some odd large black hollowed-out tubes on wheels with equally black ball-looking things stacked beside them.

"Elves, humans, dwarves, urgals and dragons, I stand before today not because we wanted this war, but because our enemies on the other side of this stretch of green soil, Alagaësian soil, have brought the war to us!", Evandar began his speech in a magically amplified voice, so that all could hear him, "through trickery and deceit, they have invaded our homes and killed our friends, families and fellow Alagaësians, and now they stand before us to lay claim to the rest of Alagaësia. Make no mistake in that they will not stop until the entire world falls to them, but I say that we stop them, right here and now! I say that we will send them a message that shall ring for eons to come; that this is OUR homes, OUR soil! No foreign powers have ever managed to conquer Alagaësia, to crush the spirit of its people, and today shall not be the day that that changes! For Alagaësia!"

"For Alagaësia!", the entire grand army chorused with such volume that it might be heard all the way back in Ilirea.

It was an astonishing and fearsome sight to behold as so many people of different races all joined in on the warcries, while the dragons roared challenges and spit tongues of fires from behind the front. Even the usually stoic elves joined in as well, which Evandar attributed to them being rather upset about having their eternal home of Du Weldenvarden invaded and desecrated while they were away.

If Evandar had been on the other side, he knew that he would have thought twice about what he was doing when such a challenge was being roared out by a vastly superior foe, and yet, the enemy remained eerily quiet as they simply stood still in their formation, like statues waiting for their master to give them life.

Their master, being the bastard himself, waited for the Alagaësians to quiet down before he chose to ride out before them on a white steel-armoured horse and in his own full steel-plate armour that glinted in the sun like it was newly polished silver.

Once out there, he rode up and down his line with his sword held high as he no doubt said words of encouragement that were too faint for Evandar to hear, but once he had finished his speech, his army did not break into a collective warcry, like Evandar's had, but rather did the far more ominous warning of banging their weapons against their shields in such a perfect rhythm that it made the very air vibrate each time.

The air vibrated exactly 26 times before everything went deadly silent and Mercury rode back behind his front line again. Evandar did not know why that specific number of times had been chosen, nor did he honestly care at the moment, as he himself also chose this moment to return back behind the front line in order to direct the battle.

With both leaders ready to begin, the battle had officially begun.

Mercury's side made the opening move, as their siege engines surprised Evandar and his generals by having a far larger range than they had expected, and therefore were fully capable of raining death down upon Evandar's front line from the safety behind their own lines.

"Push the centre siege engines forward until they have the enemy ones in range and tell the ones at our flanks to move forward to begin bombardment of the enemy flanks", Evandar instructed and watched as messengers ran from where he and the other generals and monarchs stood, "also, have our skirmisher troops advance slightly ahead of the siege engines in preparation to lay down cover fire to any enemy skirmishers that might advance".

As the men that manned his side's siege engines, toiled with towing the heavy machinery forward, while the centre ones were under constant bombardment from the enemy siege engines, the more nimble archers moved ahead of them and took up their positions.

Despite the early bombardment that Mercury's force was able to carry out, very little damage was actually done to Evandar's troops, as the elves used their magic and stored up energy to deflect the deadly enemy rain.

No sooner had Evandar's archery divisions placed themselves at their designated position before the enemy also sent out their own division to skirmish with them, though theirs was hardly a tenth of Evandar's force.

Despite their small numbers, the enemy skirmishers fared quite well against Evandar's numerically superior force, which Evandar discovered was because they used a combination of a two man team, where one would fire and another would cover them both from enemy fire with a heavy tower shield while his partner reloaded, and then there was the unmistakable fact that every single one of the enemy skirmishers seemed to carry a crossbow that could shoot just as long as the elven bows, which was quite a bit longer than their human counterparts' bows, and since the amount of crossbows in the imperial army was restricted to the ones that had been in use before war broke out, all but a few hundred of Evandar's human skirmishers were out of range and had to move closer to be able to fire, as most of them only carried their regular hunting bows with them.

It was the difference between a conscript army and a professional one, Evandar realized as he could only watch countless humans die as they attempted to close the distance that would enable them to fire back at the enemy, but he would not recall his skirmishers now, as despite the human losses, the elves hardly lost anyone, thanks to their wards, and if the skirmish line broke, then there would be no stopping the enemy skirmishers from pommeling the crews of his forward siege engines full of bolts.

"My lord, should we not close to melee with them?", one of the human generals asked Evandar.

"No, for now, we will continue to skirmish", Evandar denied the request, "I will not risk sending the majority of the army into a trap before I absolutely have to".

"I…understand", the general mumbled, and Evandar knew that the man was not happy with sitting idly by, but he would have to swallow his pride, because Evandar was still wary of what Mercury could have up in his sleeve.

It seemed to take an eternity for the siege engines to move into range, while Evandar's human skirmishers got pummelled by the enemy's, but still managed to hold out for now. If it continued on like this, then Evandar realized that he would likely lose all of the human skirmishers that he had sent out without any damage of importance having been done upon the enemy skirmishers that hardly ever took any losses because of their partner that shielded them while they reloaded. Evandar now wished that he had thought of doing that.

The elven skirmishers still protected the centre siege engines with wards, as they slowly but surely made their way forward, though Evandar knew that warding against the heavy rock projectiles took a lot of spare energy from his elven spellcasters.

Just as the siege engines finally rolled into position, the air shook with the sound of loud bangs that shocked everyone enough for them to momentarily stop what they were doing. The origin of the bangs was no mystery to be solved, as large clouds of smoke suddenly appeared around the black tubes that had been stationed on the enemy's flanks, but it was only after hearing the panicked screams of men and the splintering of wood that Evandar realized that the black tubes had done more than just make a loud noise and a cloud of smoke.

Evandar's entire army, command staff included, watched in a stupor as some of the other black tubes loosened another salvo of equally loud bangs with an equally loud cloud of smoke, but now that he was focused on them, Evandar realized that the black balls that had been stacked in piles next to black tubes were actually being shot out of the tubes with a seemingly impossible speed.

It was not many of the balls that hit the siege engines on Evandar's flanks, but those that did managed to cut straight through even the thickest of the wooden beams that made up his siege engines, which were quickly being abandoned by their panicking crews in their desperate attempt to flee this completely unheard of new threat.

"What is this devilry?", King Aldoran asked as he openly gaped in shock, while more of Evandar's siege crews began to flee as a third salvo was released.

"I truly have no idea", Evandar could only answer as he watched the rest of the crews abandon their mostly untouched siege engines in terror as they fled behind friendly lines again.

As soon as all of Evandar's flanking siege engines had been abandoned, the black tubes turned around to begin firing on his centre ones, which given the more direct angle of their shots meant that any skirmishers caught between the black balls and their destination was mangled in a truly grizzly way without it even seeming to slow down the black balls even the slightest bit.

Had this been it? Had these black tubes been what Mercury had hoped to win the battle with? Evandar could not deny that he was more than a little afraid of them at the moment, and he was not even in the firing range of them.

"Oy, lad, no time to gape if you want to salvage what is left of our siege engines and skirmish forces before they rout", King Olaf managed to shake Evandar out of his stupor.

"The dwarf is right", Islanzadi agreed, "the men look to you for guidance, and if they see you like this, then they will dishearten and despair. A leader must always remain strong".

"Yes...yes, uhm, pull the forward forces back behind our lines again", Evandar began to recollect himself again, "the enemy…things…do not seem to have quite as long range as their regular siege engines, so we should be safe for now".

"But the enemy's regular siege engines' ability to fire on our troops here was why we pulled them out in the first place", the same human general that had boasted with their assured victory earlier this very morning, exclaimed, "I say that it is time to meet the enemy in one-on-one battle".

"No, not yet", Evandar reclaimed some of his former confidence and authority, "we have to get rid of those tubes first, or the men might panic. Have the elves begin searching for the mages responsible for the enemy wards, and tell the Surdan cavalry to charge out and meet the enemy cavalry head on as fast as they can, so that the enemy cannot fire on them without hitting their own forces, while I will lead the dragon riders and the wild dragons in an assault to dispose of those tubes".

"Are you sure about this? What if the tubes begins to target the riders instead?", Islanzadi asked with an uncommon concerned tone.

"From what we have seen so far, they do not look to be able to tilt their barrels upwards and they are too slow to adjust to be able to present a danger to our faster dragons", Evandar argued as he strapped his feet in, before he brandished his sword and shouted to his fellows, "now, dragons and riders, show them what we are made of! For Alagaësia!"

The ground trembled as the cavalry began their charge and the air reverberated as a thunder of dragons, the size of which had likely never been recorded before in Alagaësian history, took to the skies with mighty roars of challenge and riders brandishing their coloured swords for all to see, and leading the charge were Evandar and Delvaria.

They had just reached an appropriate altitude out of range from any crossbow bolts, when the unmistakeable screeches of the lethrblaka cut through the air, like frosty winds that caused a shiver to run down the back of all that had ever met a lethrblaka before.

_Figures that he would have allied himself with those beasts_, Evandar mused to the agreement of Delvaria over their bond as he watched at least a hundred lethrblaka rise up from behind the mountain slopes of the Spine, where they had remained out of sight until now, _he truly is depraved to even allow them to live, let alone populate as much as they have_.

Evandar could feel a cold burning hatred burn inside of him for the evil beasts that had stolen his mate from him, caused countless deaths and a plethora of suffering, and it was with a dark pleasure that he let his thoughts flow freely to his fellow riders and dragons, _forget about the black tubes, target the lethrblaka beasts instead! Kill them! Kill them all! Leave none alive!_

In the skies directly above the green grass plains that separated the two opposing armies, the two archenemies clashed for another round in their long and bloody history.

Delvaria let loose a torrent of golden flames upon the first lethrblaka that came within reach, but the flames separated before the beast with no damage done to it, and in their surprise at not being able to burn them, or at the very least blind them, Delvaria and Evandar only barely had time to dodge the claws of the lethrblaka that they had tried to burn.

Immediately after having dodged the first and with the intent to circle back and engage it again, Delvaria and Evandar were attacked by another lethrblaka, which was only stopped from tearing out a sizeable portion of Delvaria's hind by a huge drain on Evandar's wards.

Evandar quickly uttered a combination of four of the twelve words of death to dispose of the beast that had dared to try and attack Delvaria, but to his surprise, the spell had no effect on the beast whatsoever. It was only then that Evandar spotted the human riding lethrblaka, and he immediately knew that this perverse emulation of a majestic dragon and its rider had to be one of Mercury's twisted ideas.

The heart of the human riding such a dark beast had to be equally dark, as there was no way that any good sane human would ever willingly ride the very same beast that ate his own kind. Unfortunately, before Evandar had a chance to focus on this new threat, the lethrblaka from before clashed into him from above and caused another heavy drain on his wards.

He knew that he had to get away from the two of them, as their combined efforts were too much for him in his current state, so as he cast a spell to tear open the wing of the first lethrblaka, hoping that its rider had not considered warding against that, Delvaria began a full on dive to escape the renewed attack of the second one.

This spell also had no effect, and as Delvaria increased the distance even more rapidly than before, Evandar had to let it go to avoid wasting energy unnecessarily. The two lethrblaka quickly set after the pair, but through a complex series of manoeuvres, Delvaria was able to escape their clutches and begin a renewed ascent with only a minor drain on Evandar's wards.

As Delvaria began the climb back up into the sky with the two lethrblaka pairs on her tail, Evandar was able to take stock of the situation up there.

It was not going particularly well at all.

Though the dragons had started with numerical superiority, the advantage had begun to shrink in on itself as more and more dragon riders fell victim to the ambush tactics that had nearly killed Evandar and Delvaria as well.

It made no sense to Evandar how they were losing, even if the riders could not attack with magic, as dragons were the ultimate masters of the sky. In a one-on-one match, a dragon would almost always beat a lethrblaka, and his side had started out with more dragons the enemy had had lethrblaka.

Though it had not made sense at first, Evandar slowly began to understand why the lethrblaka seemed to be winning, as he was able to study the battles in the relative peace of his ascent. The lethrblaka pairs seemed to use underhanded tactics of always attacking in pairs, and oftentimes having the dragon attacking one of them as the other swooped up and attacked from a blind spot, and whenever there was an equal or greater amount of dragons to lethrblaka, they would flee like cowards and have another pair disengage from their own fight to ambush the pursuing dragons.

Many a mighty dragon fell to these underhanded tactics that the lethrblaka beasts and their dark riders were using, but almost none of the riders or their dragons seemed to grasp that it was their side that was losing because they were either too busy hunting lethrblaka or being hunted themselves to pay attention to such details.

Just as Evandar was about to try and reach as many riders as he could with his mind in order to try and salvage this mess, the clear trumpet of horns blared from below, and as he looked down to the ground directly below him, it was to his shock that he saw that the enemy's previous straight line formation had turned into a outwards going crescent moon formation, while his own army had for some reason turned into a wedge formation that was in the midst of storming across the battlefield and directly in between the two outgoing arms of the enemy's crescent moon formation, so that they would soon clash into the enemy's weakened centre and break through it.

_I did not order this!_, Evandar thought with fury at his troops neglecting to even consult their leader before they did something like this.

* * *

Look forward to Before Friday Thursday for how Mercury views what has happened(as well as minor unimportant things, such as the conclusion of the battle and so on).

Also, did anyone see the lethrblaka coming in advance?


	10. All shall Fade II

Welcome to this Before Friday Thursday, where the song will unfortunately come to an end.

Enjoy!

* * *

**All shall Fade…**

**Mercury POV  
**Mercury snorted as he heard the Alagaësians loudly cheer at their leader's speech. They had so much confidence, so much courage and so much pride in wanting to defend their homeland. It would be amusing to grind down that confidence down into nothing, to turn the courage into pure unblemished terror and to make them curse their pride for bringing them here.

"My lord, the men are waiting for you", Ezekiel, one of his dökkálfar advisors, said.

"I know", Mercury answered from atop his armoured horse, "I just want them to quiet down first".

It took a while, but eventually, the forces on the other side of the grass plains quieted down, and when they finally did, Mercury drew his sword from its scabbard and rode out in front of his men to show the Alagaësians just why it was that his armies had been able to conquer most of the world, with the rest of it being protectorates of the Alliance, which to Mercury was just members that did not get to have a say in Alliance politics, but still paid the same tribute as other members. It was funny how it was always the very small countries that were fiercely independent, although they were willing to submit as a protectorate immediately.

"Soldiers of the Silver Wave Alliance!", Mercury said in an unamplified voice as he lifted his sword high above his head, "I am not known for being afraid to tell you the hard truth in times like these, so trust me when I tell you that if it had been anyone else that stood in our place today, they would have trembled at the sight before them.

And yet, despite of the seemingly overwhelming odds, I have full confidence in our victory here today! You want to know why that is? It is because time and time again, I have asked each and every one of you to help me accomplish what others deemed impossible, to stand strong where others would have wavered!

It is because I know that each time that I ask the impossible of you, you, as the proud and mighty soldiers that you are, shrug off the mantle of fear and redefine what is possible. And you know what? Today's battle is not an impossible battle, so it should be a walk in the park for you!

Now, for the Siege of Rushno and all the impossible battles that have been since then, I bid you stand strong and remember that after today, this war will be over!"

As Mercury finished his speech, the silent mantra of the First Sword began. It was a tradition of the First Sword that before any important battle, they would bang their weapons against their shields 26 times to represent the 26 days that the original members held out under impossible conditions during the Siege of Rushno.

Though the other two Swords never usually performed this mantra, they quickly found the rhythm and joined in as well. It had to be a terrifying sight for the Alagaësians to see as this professional army moved with one mind, as they all simultaneously stopped after the 26th bang.

After it had all stopped, Mercury returned to his command-tower, from which he would direct the battle from here on out. The heavy steel-plate armour was cumbersome to move around in, though he managed to do it with the same grace and speed that he had once done in his old leather armour.

It truly was a paradox that now, when he was at his strongest and was the closest to being invincible that he had ever been, he had to protect his body that much more with heavy steel plates. Still, it could not be helped, as he had to make sure that he never again suffered any wounds of importance. It could quickly become problematic for him if he did.

Once Mercury had finally returned to his command-tower, along with the rest of his advisors, the battle could officially begin.

"Give them a volley", Mercury said to Ezekiel, the advisor in charge of his artillery, and soon enough, death began to rain down upon the enemy from Mercury's onagers with their superior range.

As expected, Evandar chose to try and push his own artillery forward in his centre to counter the bombardment, while the ones at his flanks rolled out to try and begin bombardment of Mercury's flanks. Human archery divisions and what looked like the entire elven force quickly piled out in between the enemy onagers and advanced ahead of them.

"Tell all crossbow Decans to advance and return fire, but to focus on the human archers", Mercury calmly instructed from the safety of his command-tower, before he turned to Ezekiel and calmly said, "they do not seem to have thought much about our cannons, so have the cannons wait until the enemy siege engines are in effective range before asking for permission to fire, and instruct the onagers to keep firing on the enemy ones".

"Yes, my lord", the two advisors spoke simultaneously and began to carry out their orders, as Mercury continued to watch the battle proceed.

Half of the elves seemed to be more interested in using their stored up energy to safeguard their onagers from any possible threats to them than actually shooting any arrows, which meant that most of his onagers never actually hit any of the enemy ones.

_To waste so much energy on such trivial matters_, Mercury mused with a smirk tugging at his lips, _if things remain as they are right now, then the human archers will be decimated, the elves will lose most of their strength on trying to keep the onagers alive and therefore be unable to ward against my crossbow units. It is such a shame that the enemy onagers will soon be in range_.

"The cannon crews report that the enemy have reached effective range", Ezekiel reported calmly, "they await your permission to open fire".

It would be the first time in recorded history that cannons would actually be used in a real battle, as Mercury had purposely made sure to stall the development of any such technology until recently. His decision to stall the development of such weapons had less to do with any moral reasons that one might have and more to do with entirely other reasons.

One such reason was that although Mercury did not like to admit it, he did actually feel quite comfortable in waging war in the way that he always had been, and if he had introduced guns to this world sooner, then he would have had to fight battles in an entirely different way than he had in the past.

There was after all, no telling whether such weapons would spread beyond the Alliance's borders, and if that happened, then it could quickly turn messy. Another reason for his decision to stall the production of such weapons was that if everyone had access to guns, then he would have no longer been able to put down rebellions as easily as he had been in the past, as the training and discipline of his soldiers would come to mean much less with guns around.

By waiting until now to allow research into cannons to be conducted, Mercury had ensured that the only cannons currently in existence were those at his flanks, which were still very much considered experimental units by the Tribunal and the rest of the military structure, but after today, Mercury was sure that production of cannons would quickly escalate exponentially.

In the end, it would not matter, as Mercury would have already enacted his final plan before the cannons could ever become a real threat to his usual way of waging war.

"Fire", Mercury uttered the word that would irrevocably change warfare.

As the first salvo was released, the customary plume of smoke arose from his flanks, and although the cannons were currently far from being pinpoint accurate, some cannonballs still hit home as they smashed everything in their path.

A collective gasp could almost be heard from the enemy army as they all, even the archers and onager crews, stopped whatever it was that they were doing and watched in a stupor. Since Mercury had prioritized a continuous fire over one large strike, the cannons took turns to fire while the others reloaded, so before enough time had passed to let the enemy recollect, another salvo was released.

The second salvo was better aimed than the first one had been, and already, Mercury could see many of the onager crews abandoning their machines in favour of fleeing from his cannons. It was actually rather amusing to Mercury that they did that, as his cannons were hardly any more effective than his onagers would have been, but he knew that the strength of gunpowder weaponry, for now at least, would be firmly stuck in their psychological effect, rather than their material effect.

After the third salvo was over, almost all of the onager crews on the flanks had already fled, and those that had not already soon did so too, despite them leaving behind an almost untouched collection of onagers that would still have been able to do much damage if they were in play.

"Have the cannons target the centre", Mercury instructed and watched as a fourth salvo was released into the centre to grizzly effect, as the cannonballs cut through all that stood in their path.

The enemy archers would no doubt have routed if Mercury had been allowed to continue to fire into their ranks, but Evandar finally seemed to pull himself together as he ordered a full retreat of his forward forces in order to avoid an actual rout.

"Tell the skirmish line to fall back again", Mercury instructed as the enemy's skirmish line withdrew.

"But, my lord, they could still inflict more enemy casualties", the advisor, which was responsible for the crossbow Decans, objected.

"The enemy will soon close to melee, and I do not want them in the middle of that", Mercury argued, "do it".

"I understand, my lord", the advisor said obediently.

Shortly after that, many things happened all at once that all seemed to require Mercury's immediate attention. The dragon riders took to the air with roars of challenge, the Surdan cavalry began to charge across the plains and reports were streaming in of enemy mages trying to find and destroy the mages responsible for his units' wards.

"Have the cannons switch to canister shots and target the cavalry, tell the battlemages to not engage in mental combat unless absolutely necessary and inform the Knight-Wings to launch", Mercury barked out his orders in near lightning speed, "have the main force of the Artaxian cavalry charge the enemy after they reach the minimum safe distance for the cannons, while the Nubian cavalry is to circle around the enemy and charge into them from the rear".

The Artaxian cavalry was famous throughout the entire Alliance for being the heaviest and most hard-hitting cavalry in existence, which was the result of a combination of having bred their horses for this exact purpose for the past eight centuries and then their riders' belief that stated that dying on the battlefield against a heathen enemy was a sure-cut way of getting into their version of heaven, which made all the riders utterly fearless in battle.

Mercury personally did not like their belief in such things, but he was more than willing to utilize it, as just because he had a personal dislike for religion in general, he still found strongly religious people to be excellent allies. That is, if they could be controlled.

The Nubian cavalry on the other hand was far simpler, as it was simply cavalry imported from the desert province that had been bred for speed and speed alone. They could actually win against the Artaxian cavalry if it ever came down to it, but only by utilizing their superior speed and the horseback-archery lessons that any Nubian child was taught from the moment that they could sit on a horse, but for today, they were simply equipped with lances and were simply meant to smash into the enemy's rear again and again until they eventually broke and routed.

Screeches split the air as his Knight-Wings finally revealed themselves to the enemy, with their leathery wings, sharp talons and their armoured mage riders.

Shortly after their empire had fallen, Mercury had gathered all of the ra'zac and lethrblaka together and had in very direct terms given them an ultimatum; find another source of food or face extinction, and suddenly, most of the lethrblaka race had discovered that fish tasted quite alright as well.

There had of course been minor incidents in the start, where a lethrblaka or a ra'zac would lose control and eat a human, but whenever that happened, the guilty party was sentenced to death and the rest of the race continued on living, until the point eventually came where the new generation of ra'zac' saw the eating of humans as something utterly distasteful, and not just a desire that they had to forego.

Once that point had been reached, which had admittedly taken quite a few decades, Mercury's future plans were finally able to be set into motion and the Knight-Wing program had been started, though under a different name at the time.

Despite their progress in adapting to the new society, the humans of Damocles had still feared and mistrusted the ra'zac and their parents, so on top of the quite generous pay that he already offered to those that volunteered to try and partner with the lethrblaka willing to serve in the program, Mercury had also had to offer them knighthood on top of that, which meant a small tax cut, exemption from a few minor laws and a few other rights.

That had been when the program had gained its name and why the new units had been dubbed Knight-Wings, but unlike the dragon riders and their bond with their dragons, the Knight-Wing pairs had had to build that level of trust and loyalty to one another by themselves in the old-fashioned way, which took considerable time and effort on both' part.

In the end though, it had all been worth the effort, as Mercury had lost track of how many engagements that he had won thanks to having aerial superiority and the massive psychological effects that came with it, and now they would begin the ultimate test of their training.

_I expected that you might react this way, Evandar_, Mercury mused darkly as he watched Evandar abandon any thought of the cannons and instead have all of his dragon riders target the Knight-Wings instead, _with the lethrblaka in front of you, you will focus on them and nothing else, paving the road for my ultimate victory_.

As his Knight-Wings clashed with the enemy dragon riders in mid-air, Mercury knew that his force would do well despite their inferior numbers, as his Knight-Wings had been trained to always work together in tandem with another Knight-Wing, and unlike the dragon riders that had grown complacent in their dragons' superiority, the Knight-Wings were trained to actually use tactics to overcome superior numbers and strength.

"Extend the line 500 metres to both sides", Mercury looked away from the carnage in the air to direct his ground battle.

"But, my lord, our line cannot hope to hold if the enemy charges us", one of his advisors warned.

"I know that; do it anyway", Mercury overruled him, "has the enemy cavalry routed yet?"

"Not yet, sir, but my men report that it will not be long", another advisor answered.

"Good, tell the men that I want an outwards going crescent moon formation with the cannons at the tips, where they will fire on the enemy flanks and draw them towards their centre", Mercury ordered, "make sure that the arms are long enough apart for the enemy to be able to get in between them".

The same advisor that objected earlier was just about to do so again, which Mercury could fully understand, as he had only released his battleplans on a need to know basis to keep them as secret as possible, which was key in them actually working, and that particular advisor had not needed to know, so he did not, but despite this lack of knowledge, the advisor still managed to keep his tongue this time.

"My lord, are you deliberately trying to get them to melee with us?", the nervous advisor questioned after bombardment had been recommenced of the enemy flanks, "because I would strongly advise against that course of action. According to my reports and my own estimations, closing to melee with some of these people would inflict heavy, if not catastrophic casualties on our side".

"I know", Mercury responded with a shrug, "and yet that is exactly the course of action that I intend to take. You see, Lord Lorraine, there is no way that we can win this fight by fighting as we usually do, as the enemy simply outnumbers and in some cases outclasses us so much that we would run out of ammunition before we would stand a chance of winning over them in a melee combat".

It was true, Mercury had known going in that no matter how much better his artillery and skirmisher troops were, it would not be enough to outweigh the sheer number advantage that the enemy had, although he could likely have won the war anyway if he had turned this battle into a drawn out fight-and-flight battle, where his troops would constantly nib at the enemy and then retreat, but without ever engaging them for real, and by constantly being a step in front of the enemy behemoth.

_Why will they not charge?_, Mercury mused as his forced continued to annoy the enemy but without really causing significant damage to them, though the enemy cavalry had routed at this point, _has he really managed to convince them not to charge, even while under fire and without the possibility of returning it?_

Just as Mercury finished these thoughts, the enemy slowly began to move. The urgalgra race was the first to charge ahead, but the humans were a close second, while the dwarves came in third and a seemingly reluctant elven force charged after them into what looked most of all like an arrow that went straight in between the arms of his crescent moon and was headed towards his weakened centre, which would certainly not be able to hold back such a force.

"Tell the Knight-Wings to pull out immediately!", Mercury shouted, before he turned to his representative from the SEC and darkly said, "do it".

As the dragon riders watched the Knight-Wings seemingly rout to find safety along Mercury's ground troops, they chose to cheer at their victory and stay circling above their allied forces, which were still charging with furious cries of war and cheers at the riders' victory.

The main body of the enemy's force was now placed directly in the centre between the forces furthest to Mercury's front and his rear, as well as between those to either side, and the dragon riders were flying just above them at that specific time.

"You might want to hold onto something", Mercury announced as he grabbed the wooden railing of his command-tower, and just a moment after he had done so, a cataclysmic event tore shook the ground and made the tower quake in its reinforced foundations, though it managed to hold firm.

The very ground underneath the enemy exploded upwards in a furious roar of flames and debris that were blown upwards and crashed into the unsuspecting dragon riders. It was an astonishing sight to see, and if Mercury had to liken it to something, he would liken it to a volcano suddenly erupting in a blast that tore everything with it.

It was not such a thing however, as it was merely the result of the SEC being ordered to excavate the ground underneath where the enemy had been, in order to store countless barrels of the explosive salt that Mercury had only now given them the formula to make, so that they could make the necessary quantities.

"Gods above and below", Ezekiel murmured astonished as he watched the debris of the explosion slowly stop its ascent and begin to fall down just a short distance from where Mercury had stationed his troops.

"Tell the cavalry to ride down any reserves that they might still have, and have the ground forces begin to encircle the crater", Mercury tore everyone out of their stupor by saying, "oh, and make sure that the Knight-Wings take care of any dragon riders that might still be alive".

"Once at, I mean, my once, uhh, at once, my lord", one of his advisors stumbled over his words as he came out of his stupor, quickly followed by the rest of his command staff.

"This battle is now over", Mercury announced as he turned around to leave the command-tower, "I leave the clean-up of it in your hands. I expect a detailed report from each of the heads of the branches on my desk by the beginning of next week".

"Yes, thank you, my lord", came a chorus of voices from behind Mercury as he left.

_The dragon riders and all those that could have possible hoped to challenge me have now been vanquished_, he mused as he cast one look back towards the dust cloud that surrounded the crater where the enemy main force had once been, _from this moment on, Albion belongs to me, and I am now one step closer to reaching my final goal._

* * *

So...that was the end of the grand army..._  
_

In a related matter, I have never before wished for background music to be available between the lines as I have right now. Specifically, I would like for The Master by Nakagawa Koutarou to be played right at the end, as it has the right feeling of...imperialistic dread.


	11. What to do now?

**What to do now?**

**Loivissa POV  
**The cold night air stung Loivissa's skin like a thousand tiny blades, but she ignored it for now as she kept herself hidden in the branches of a tree. Riders with torches and sharp lances were searching the grounds shortly below her, searching for her, but if she could keep quiet, then maybe this group would not discover her.

It had been like this ever since she had escaped three nights ago, or rather, since she had been let go by His aide. Loivissa still did not know how to feel about that, as though she was grateful for being released, the aide had not done so for her sake, but rather because of some strange sense of loyalty to her master.

Still, even though Ilumëo had very bluntly left her to fend for herself the moment that she was out of sight, with no weapons or even her precious Adûn, Loivissa had to admit that if He ever found out about what the aide had done, then she doubted very much that He would look very kindly on her actions, no matter her motives for doing so.

He had after all never been the overly forgiving type.

"I think that I saw her over there!", one of the riders underneath her shouted, which made the others leave with him.

Loivissa breathed a sigh of relief as they left, and when she was sure that they were far enough away, she started to slowly move higher up into the tree without making a sound. If she was lucky, the riders would drop their search for her and go home for the night. If she was unlucky, they would come back with hounds.

She had tried ambushing one of the first search parties, which they had sent out for her, less than an hour after she had made it outside of the walls, but as a result of the month and a half that she had been incarcerated, her body had been weakened and her magic had been useless against them, because all of them had their own sets of wards.

She had only managed to knock out one of the riders, not even kill the man, and then steal his horse before she had had to flee again, though this time, it was from multiple parties that had chased her. She had then had to ditch the horse at the first opportunity, as it was far easier for them to track her on it than off of it, and unlike her, they had been able to switch for new fresh horses regularly.

At first, she had fled eastward, not so much because of any choice on her part, but rather because she had been forced that way, but after she had reached the edge of the Spine, which at that particular point had been nigh on impossible to cross, she had had two choices; go south and hope that the mountains opened up enough for her to slip inside them before she would eventually be forced down the Toark-river and right into the arms of an entire army blocking that pass, or go north instead and hope that she could make her escape that way.

She had chosen north, but she had yet to reach a point where it was somewhat possible to make a crossing.

As the winds rustled the leaves in the tree that she was in, Loivissa wrapped her arms closely around herself to try and preserve as much body heat as possible. She had not gotten out with particularly fitting clothing for a long trek and had unfortunately been unable to procure anything since her escape, so she had had to make due.

The howling winds sent chills through her system, but unfortunately, she did not dare to use magic to keep her warm as she slept, as she was afraid that the energy required would be more than she could handle and that her already dwindling stores would run out while she slept.

A grumbling noise from her stomach broke the howling of the wind, but the riders were fortunately out of hearing range when it happened. Loivissa tried to calm it down by chewing on a root, which she had found out alleviated her hunger for the time, but because she had been hunted almost constantly these last three days, she had had no real food in just as long.

The root helped somewhat, but not nearly enough, so instead, Loivissa spat it out and started to mentally search for any small animals that she might be capable of eating. The reason for her not doing so before was that she had feared that the riders might have had a mage that would discover her presence, but since it had now been a while since she had last heard from them, she chose to take her chances.

She found a family of rabbits sleeping safe and sound in a hole not far from her tree. It consisted of a mother and her four kittens that could not have been more than a few weeks old, and which were nestled in close with their mother.

Initially, Loivissa left the small family alone to search for other creatures nearby, but there was a limit to how far she dared to spread her mind, and when she found no other animals that would suffice, she once again returned to the small rabbit family in their hole.

The kittens were far too small to even try and bother to eat, but if she just killed their mother and left them there, then they were sure to die anyway. Was it really alright for her to kill this family just because she was too afraid to search for anything further out?

In the end, Loivissa prioritized her own survival over the rabbits', so as they slept, she killed the mother and her kittens with one of the twelve words of death that would kill them without them even feeling it. Killing the mother had been the goal, but the kittens were done so out of mercy, as it would have been cruel to them to let them slowly die of starvation without their mother's protection.

After killing the rabbits, Loivissa lifted the mother up to where she was perched with magic, but because she did not dare to light a fire for fear of being spotted, she had no choice but to eat it raw. She had not eaten meat in almost half a millennium, so the very idea of it made her stomach churn.

The first bite would have made her throw up if she had had anything to throw up, but after forcing herself to swallow it, she eventually took another and then another. It became…easier to eat the raw meat the more she ate, but it never became something that she enjoyed doing.

When she was finally full, Loivissa felt very tired and swiftly spun a few spells to make sure that she would not fall down while she rested, before her eyes closed and she entered her dream-like trance.

Loivissa did not see any riders the entire next day, and when night came, she was forced to kill yet another creature in order to feed her hunger, though she dared to light a fire this time in order to cook the meat, which made it slightly more bearable to eat.

On the day after that, she finally found a small pass leading into the Spine, and after working her way further north up the Spine, she eventually came across the remains of a small tribe of urgals.

The tribe had very few members left in it, as most had apparently gone to join the grand army. Loivissa's urgal was more than just a little rusty, and not one of the members left understood the common tongue or the Ancient language, but through showing her gedwëy ignasia, Loivissa was able to convince them that she was a dragon rider.

The communication between her and the tribe members was mostly done by gestures and drawings in the ground, as her vocabulary had dwindled depressingly much during the centuries of neglect, but she believed that she eventually managed to explain who she was and why her dragon was not with her, and after hearing her story, the tribe gifted her with warmer clothes made from pelts of dead animals, as well as food and a small club-looking thing that could be used as a weapon.

Loivissa stayed with the tribe only for the night, before she moved on and continued heading north. She reached the mountain of Nolondil two days after leaving the tribe, where she stayed in Dras Draumr with her distant relatives.

Though they would have been more than happy to let her stay there for as long as she liked, especially since Dras Draumr was still a dragon rider outpost, Loivissa left them only a few hours after she had arrived, as she knew that if her brother lost the battle, then this would be the first place that He might look for her in.

Before she left, she told her relatives that if her brother came by or in any way contacted them, they were to tell him that she would be heading north to stay with her even more distant relatives in Carvahall. Luckily though, when she left Dras Draumr, she was given a small storage of dried vegetables to eat on her way, so that she would not need to constantly kill animals while she was on the move, as well as a regular human-made sword to replace her urgal club-thing.

On the fourteenth day after her escape, Loivissa finally made it into the city of Carvahall, where she was welcomed with open arms by the earl, his wife and their three sons and one daughter, whose family had been close friends to the dragon rider order ever since the days of Roran Stronghammer.

The earl was a broad-shouldered man with the given name of Karl, who was in his mid-forties with a black full beard that had grey streaks beginning to sneak their way into it, while his wife was a sweet lady by the name of Lady Elsa, who was beginning to be a little round all over, but not nearly to the extent of many of the fatter nobles, with the current high king as the prime example.

The two eldest sons that were home were 18 and 21 respectively, and were named Garth and Aaron, while their daughter at 16 was named Katrina and their youngest son at 7 was named Leif. Aaron and Garth both heavily took after their father in appearance, though none of them were allowed to sport the same beard as their father, while Katrina had their father's black hair but their mother's general facial structure and brown eyes, but Leif was still too small for any resemblance to be made, other than the fact that he had inherited his father's green eyes and his mother's copper hair.

The eldest son of Earl Karl and Lady Elsa was a young 22 year old man by the name of Evan that had been about to be wed to one of the daughters of the duke of Ceunon when the invasion had happened, but afterwards, the wedding had been postponed so that Evan could join the grand army that had been forming in Ilirea.

"When do you expect to hear how the battle went?", Loivissa asked as she stopped eating her breakfast for a moment.

Around the table, the other members of the House Stronghammer looked at each other warily for a moment, before Earl Karl eventually cleared his throat and nervously said, "we do not know, but would it not be easier for yourself to find out by contacting your brother on your own? We do have a scrying mirror that you could use".

"No", Loivissa denied firmly, "I cannot contact my brother until the battle is over because of an oath that I had to take in order to escape my captivity".

"Oh", the earl murmured with a look of curiosity and surprise all too visible, before he nervously continued, "then if you do not mind me asking, what was the latest news that you heard about the invasion?"

Though the family had welcomed her with open arms the night before, they had known well enough not to pry too deeply into what she had been through when she had arrived at their doorsteps completely drenched by the rain and probably not looking at all like any dragon rider that they had ever seen. Loivissa half expected it to have been pity on their part that made them welcome her inside before they had known who and what she was.

"I was imprisoned in Teirm the day that the invasion began, and while I was there, I heard no new news other than what my jailors told me, which was limited to the fact that there would be a battle between my brother's army and the invaders' army", Loivissa grumbled as she took a forceful bite out of the bread with honey that she was eating, which she quickly swallowed before continuing, "after escaping, I was chased for a number of days before I managed to lose my pursuers and make my way into the Spine, where I came upon a small urgal tribe, who clothed me and confirmed that the battle would soon take place. I left them the next day and ventured further north through the Spine, only stopping once to leave a message in Nolondil, before I eventually made my way here, so I have been out of touch with the world for quite a while now".

"I see", the earl mumbled thoughtfully as he stroked his beard, "then you have not heard the rumours about a second invasion force from the north".

"What?!", Loivissa exclaimed a bit too loudly.

"Nothing has been confirmed yet, but the last rumour that we heard from Ceunon was that a large snow-covered force came down from the north and swept aside its defences like they were nothing, before they marched on east into Du Weldenvarden".

"But there is nothing but frozen wasteland further north, so where did it come from?", Loivissa murmured more to herself than towards the others.

"I do not know, but I am sure that once your brother is done with the army in the south, he will march the grand army right up and vanquish this one as well. No foreign power has ever managed to beat the Alagaësians before", Earl Karl tried to sound comforting, though for whose benefit that was, Loivissa did not know.

His latter statement about Alagaësia never having lost to a foreign power was not actually that comforting to Loivissa, as she knew that the last time someone really tried to invade Alagaësia, their attempt had been close to successful right up until another foreign power had decided to intervene.

The fact that that intervention had been orchestrated by the very same person that led this invasion was also not comforting to think about, and nor was it comforting to think about how this new invasion was by a nation that supposedly, among others, encompassed BOTH of the two foreign powers from before, as well as it having supposedly already taken the dragon rider city of Estildirin, so no additional help could come from there.

Though these things churned around in Loivissa's mind, she chose not to say them out loud, partly because she did not want to sour the mood at the table any further and partly because she did not want the children to hear it.

"How about we try to find some clothes that might fit you, dear", Lady Elsa suddenly exclaimed in a clear attempt to change the topic, "I think that some of my older clothes dresses might be able to fit you, but I cannot be certain, as it has been decades since I last wore them".

"Or perhaps she can have some of my clothes!", Karina squealed happily at the thought.

Loivissa looked down at her worn out prison garbs that were covered with various pelts, before she caught her reflection in a bowl of water, where she saw that there were still small leaves and twigs that were stuck in her long golden hair, as well as many other signs of a long travel clearly evident on her skin, before she sighed and said, "could I be allowed a bath first to wash out the grime of my journey? I have not had one since I left Dras Draumr, as I was too tired last night to take one before I retired".

"Yes, certainly dear", Lady Elsa said understandingly, "I shall have one readied for you immediately, and then we can begin redressing you into something more proper for a lady".

Loivissa thanked the lady for her hospitality, before she left the table to take her bath shortly afterwards, when a maid told them that it was ready for her. The water was steaming hot when she arrived, but despite the protests from the maid that had helped prepare it, and which had been assigned to assist her, she dove right in anyway.

The scalding water only burned her skin in the start, before she eventually adjusted to it. She liked it that way, as it reminded her of Adûn and the warmth that was exuded near his belly. In fact, it reminded her so much of Adûn that she had to send the maid away, so that she would not play witness to Loivissa's tears at being separated from her partner-of-heart-and-mind.

Eventually though, her tears dried up and she washed away all traces of them from her face before she allowed Lady Elsa and her daughter inside with the dresses that they had gathered. After quickly drying herself, she stepped out from behind the partition and began to try out the dresses.

None of them fit her particularly well, as she was far too high for any of Karina's dresses, and all of Lady Elsa's dresses had been made for a woman slightly smaller and who also had a completely different width and bust size than Loivissa.

Lady Elsa looked at Loivissa's figure critically, before she told her to wait here as she found out whether any of the maids had any dresses that might fit her, though she warned her that they would not be as fine to wear as her own or her daughter's.

Loivissa once again thanked her for her generosity and reassured her that as long as it fit, she would be more than happy to wear men's clothes, which was actually not that far from the truth, as Loivissa would have preferred the more practical trousers and shirts of men to the dresses that she had been presented with until now, but she had refrained from telling them that because the mother and daughter had seemed so eager to play dress-up.

A short while after both of the women had left her alone in the room, Loivissa heard a knock at the door, which was swiftly followed by Aaron's soft voice, "can I come in? I have some clothes that might fit you".

Loivissa quickly retreated back behind the partition cordoning off the bath, before she allowed him to enter. The sound of a door opening and closing was the only indicator of his entry, as his footsteps were completely soundless.

"I have the clothes here", Aaron said as he pushed the stack of clothes towards her side of the partition with the tip of his foot, while he made sure to stay firmly behind the partition.

The stack of clothes consisted of black leather pants, a cream-coloured tunic made from elven lámarae, a leather belt with a steel fastening and a black vest made from soft wool. The clothes were clearly not made for women, but they fit quite well nonetheless, though Loivissa had to forgo buttoning some of the upper buttons on the vest in order to make it fit.

"Whose clothes are these?", Loivissa asked as she stepped out from behind the partition.

Aaron blushed upon seeing her, before he looked down at his feet and softly mumbled, "they are mine. I just thought that with all that I know about dragon riders, you might be more comfortable in more flexible clothing".

His mother chose that moment to barge into the room with both her and her daughter's arms stacked full of various dresses, but upon seeing her son and a now clothed Loivissa, she gaped at both of them and confusedly said, "what are you doing in here Aaron, and is that YOUR clothes that our honoured guest is wearing?!"

"It is quite alright, my lady, they fit me quite well and are more comfortable to walk around in than a dress would have been", Loivissa quickly intervened to save Aaron from his mother's scolding.

"Well, if you say so, but still, a lady in men's clothing…", Lady Elsa murmured disapprovingly under her breath, clearly underestimating Loivissa's elven hearing, before she turned towards her son and harshly said, "I am sure that your father needs you to help with something, so go find him".

Aaron ran off like a pack of hounds were on his tail, and after one last disapproving glance at Loivissa's attire, Lady Elsa took off as well with her daughter in tow, leaving Loivissa alone in the room once again.

Perhaps it would have been better if she had just decided to wait for the dresses after all, but if she had done so, then she would not have been able to move as freely and comfortably as she did right now, and Loivissa very much doubted that the lady would have approved of her securing her temporary sword to whatever belt that they had brought along to fit the dress.

A heavy thud tore her out of her musings, and when another and then another followed, she realized that it could only mean one thing; a dragon was approaching. Quick as a flash, Loivissa grabbed her shoes and tried to get them on as she continued to hump down the hallways and out of the castle.

When she finally managed to get out, the sun blinded her eyes momentarily and she had to blink several times before they adjusted, but when they finally did, she saw the unmistakably golden form of Delvaria descend down from the skies at a breakneck pace.

Her brother had finally come, but had he abandoned his army and responsibilities when he had learned of her survival? Loivissa hoped that this was not the case, though she knew that it would not be the first time that he had done something like this.

Delvaria's landing made the very ground shake underneath their feet, but it was only when Loivissa saw her brother with her own eyes that she knew that there was something wrong. He was still garbed in his battle-armour, though it, and more than a fair portion of Delvaria's upper body, was completely covered in sod and dirt, and his expression was a mixture of relief at finally seeing her and a strong sadness at something that Loivissa did not know what was.

"What happened? How did the battle go?", Loivissa asked while she stormed forward to help him down, as he looked like he could fall down at any moment now if it had not been for the restraints holding him in place.

"It- it did not", his voice cracked as he spoke, "250.000 people from all the races, over a hundred dragon riders and they are all just…gone".

"What about my son?! Do you know what happened to my son!?", Earl Karl said suddenly and urgently from beside Loivissa, though she did not know when exactly he had arrived.

"I do not know", Evandar said sadly, as if still in shock, while he let Loivissa hold most of his weight, "he might have been in the reserves that surrendered, but…I do not know what to do anymore. What can we do?"

"Shh, brother, we will think of something, just relax for now", Loivissa hushed him as she helped him inside, though it did not stop her from thinking, _what do we do now?_

"They said at Dras Draumr that you were here", her brother murmured in a daze as she helped him walk, "why did you not let me know that you were alright?"

"I will tell you all about it later", Loivissa answered with a twinge of guilt churning in her stomach as His words came back to her, _'the more men that he gathers to fight, the more will ultimately have to die'_.

Never before had she hated Him so much for being right.


	12. My Queen, my Duty, my Life

Happy, Before Friday Thursday.  
Enjoy this chapter at your own expense.

* * *

**My Queen, my Duty, my Life**

**Blödhgarm POV**  
It had been three weeks since the climactic battle; a battle that had gone so very wrong that Blödhgarm had a hard time imaging any way that it could have gone even more wrong than it already had. What he had seen, heard and felt at that battle would haunt him for the rest of his life, of that, Blödhgarm was sure.

Blödhgarm was not unaccustomed to war and death. He had after all participated in both the Fall and the Rider War, so he had seen much death and destruction, but this battle had been something entirely different from those times.

Not even when Galbatorix and his Forsworn had laid waste to the elven army during the final days of the Fall had Blödhgarm witnessed destruction on such a scale as there had been during this one battle.

No, it had not been a battle at all…slaughter, yes, that was a more fitting name for what had happened that day, the day when Alagaësia had fallen to darkness once again. All but a few thousand of the souls that had been in the Alagaësian army could now call that battlefield their final resting ground.

The dragon riders had also been almost completely wiped out when the earth had erupted; although Blödhgarm was fairly sure that he saw a few of them make it out alive, though most of those had then been captured immediately afterwards by the foul lethrblaka.

As for why Blödhgarm was still alive, that was simply because he had pleaded and begged his queen to remain behind with the reserves, which she had eventually agreed to do, and since his place was at her side, he had been with the reserves as well when it had happened.

The enemies had not even given them an ounce of time to mourn or pay their respects for the recently deceased, before their riders had surrounded the few divisions that had been kept in reserve. A few had initially struggled and tried to continue the fight, but after they had all been ridden down in a matter of moments, everyone had just given up and surrendered.

Elves, humans, dwarves, urgals, lords, ladies, royals and commoners, they had all been treated as one and put in chains like simple criminals. The enemy had only let a small group of humans and dwarves stay behind to bury the bodies, or what was left of them, before that traitor to Mercury Iridium had marched his army all the way to Ilirea, with the prisoners in tow, and had demanded their immediate and unconditional surrender.

It had come to no surprise to Blödhgarm when the city had surrendered almost before Mercury had even finished his demands, as it was clearly evident on the faces of those that had surrendered the city that they had heard of what had happened, and if they had not, then the sight of Mercury's prisoners, where all of the still living royals from the various races had been paraded in the front, would surely have given them reasonable ideas as to what had happened.

And so it had come to pass that Blödhgarm found himself sitting in the dungeons underneath Ilirea Castle, where he shared a cell with the former elven ambassador, Vanir-elda, whom no one had heard from since the traitor had made his surprise attack in Teirm.

An iron collar with inverted spikes and a small amethyst at the back was placed around each of their necks, which tied them to a wall opposite from one another with just enough of a chain that they could stand and walk a metre in either direction, though not enough for them to reach each other.

If either of them tried pulling too much on the chain, the spikes would dig into their necks and likely kill them, and though Blödhgarm had wanted to try magic when it had first been secured around his neck and the guards had left, Vanir-elda had advised him that it was not a good option to try either.

"**Stand up, both of you**", a guard shouted through the iron door, and only after they had both done so, did he enter and put down two trays of some murky looking soup and some hard rye bread, before he inspected each of their collars for signs of tampering.

Grunting in satisfaction that they had not been tampered with, the man joined his partner, which had been standing ready just outside the door with his hand ready on the hilt of his sword, before both of them left to repeat the process at the cell next to Blödhgarm's and Vanir-elda's.

"**They are nothing if not punctual**", Vanir-elda quipped, as he reached for the food that had been delivered.

"**I will take your word for it**", Blödhgarm replied as he too reached for the food, though more hesitantly than Vanir-elda.

Vanir-elda had been a prisoner for far longer than Blödhgarm had, as they had only been cellmates for less than a week now, so it was no wonder that he would know the guards' habits better than Blödhgarm. It had also been Vanir-elda that had informed him that there was no reason not to eat the food that they gave, as he was sure that no meat was spent on simple prisoners, and he was even surer that it had not been poisoned to inhibit their magical talents.

The dark magic in the amethysts did that perfectly well, so why waste further resources on the matter?

"**Why did they even bother transferring you here from Teirm?**", Blödhgarm asked politely as they ate, "**the stars know that it is crowded enough in these dungeons with just the prisoners from the battle, so why add more people to an already overcrowded dungeon?**"

"**I do not know**", Vanir replied thoughtfully, "**I think that it might have to do with the escape, but I cannot be sure**".

"**What escape?**", Blödhgarm practically jumped at the news, which could have led to some nasty cuts on his throat if he had been unlucky, "**you mean to tell me that someone managed to escape from this?**"

If there had been one escape, then Blödhgarm was sure that there could be another, and that thought gave him courage, courage to try and actually think of a way to get out of this and rescue his queen. Perhaps all was not lost yet…

"**I overheard it from some of the guards back in Teirm**", Vanir-elda answered, "**apparently, Loivissa-elda somehow managed to escape in the dead of night shortly after Mercury left Teirm. The ward was furious and sent out search parties, but none of them ever managed to capture her**".

"**Do you know how she did it?**", Blödhgarm inquired eagerly.

"**No, I only know what I overheard from the guards, but from what little I know, it seems that they are just as confused as to how she escaped as I am**", Vanir-elda said as he shook his head sadly, "**according to what I overheard, it was like her chain and her cell door just unlocked themselves and she disappeared without anyone ever seeing her leave the dungeons. They started using these collars shortly afterwards, but it still does not answer how she managed to overcome the previous obstacles**".

"**What was it like before her escape?**", Blödhgarm asked curiously, as it might give him ideas as to how to escape this imprisonment.

"**Far kinder**", Vanir-elda replied almost wistfully, "**we just had a chain secured around one of our feet and the amethyst was simply placed in a cage out of our reach. Back then, we did not need to watch our every move to consider whether it might accidentally kill us**".

That was another thing that Blödhgarm had noticed about this prison; there was nothing that stopped you from killing yourself. If you wanted to commit suicide, all you had to do was to continue pressing against the chain, and then the spikes would take care of it for you.

It was almost like the traitor was taunting them; all but telling them that if they so wished it, then they were free to end their suffering one way or another. The other way of course was trough forsaking their homeland and pride and declaring themselves loyal subjects of the Alliance.

Blödhgarm would be lying if he said that he had not thought about the former option of ending his imprisonment, but the small hope that he might somehow find a way to facilitate his queen's escape from these dungeons was what primarily kept him from going through with it.

"**Have you ever thought of other ways that one might escape in?**", Blödhgarm inquired softly after they had both finished eating, "**perhaps ways that required two people to be successful?**"

"**I had a few ideas the first month after my capture**", Vanir-elda shrugged noncommittally, "**none of them were more than farfetched ideas even before they tightened the security. After that, I sort of gave up and just hoped that you guys would be quick in defeating Mercury and freeing me**".

That was not exactly comforting news to Blödhgarm, and the two descended into awkward silence for a while after that. The only disturbance during that time was when the guards came to relieve them of their trays, which were carefully checked to see if anything was missing, followed by another collar checking, before they were once again left to their own devises.

On the morning of the next day, Blödhgarm scratched a new number into the wall behind him with his claws, so as to allow him to keep track of how many days that he had been captured in here. It was as he was finishing the last curve that an idea sprang to mind.

"**Do you know how far these bolts go into the wall?**", Blödhgarm asked eagerly, perhaps too eagerly, as his voice came out higher than he had intended.

"**Around 7 to 10 centimetres if they have regular imperial standards**", Vanir-elda answered with a shrug, "**why?**"

_Hmm, that deep. It would take some time, but it might be doable_, Blödhgarm mused, before he turned to Vanir-elda and said, "**I think that I might have an idea as to how to get us out of here**".

"**If it involves trying to dig out the bolts, then I would like to remind you that not only would we not have anywhere to dispose of the gravel, but we also still need to get past a solid iron door**", Vanir-elda said with a sigh, before he held up his hand for Blödhgarm to see, "**even if you managed to dig everything out without their notice, I would still not be able to copy you, as I have regular nails, so it would take a decade for me to accomplish**".

Blödhgarm had to admit that what Vanir pointed out was correct, but his blatant dismissal of Blödhgarm's idea also told Blödhgarm that the former ambassador had given up on ever escaping from here. Who knew when the time would come when he gave up on other things as well?

"**Let us, for the argument's sake, say that I manage to free us both. Would you then know how to escape this castle, or where the queen might be kept?**", Blödhgarm tried to inspire some form of hope in his cellmate, as the plan that was beginning to come to life inside his head, hinged heavily upon his cooperation.

"**If we were somehow freed, then I am confident that I would know my way around good enough to elude capture for a while, though it will not be for long if I am by myself, but I have no idea of where the queen would be kept**", Vanir answered with a shrug, "**why, what are you scheming?**"

"**If I can find a way to dispose of the gravel without the guards' notice, then I might have an idea that could be the start of a jailbreak**", Blödhgarm revealed, "**but I need your help to pull it off. Will you help me, and the entirety of Alagaësia?**"

A spark of life seemed to return to his cellmates eyes, and though it was still faint for now, it was a vast improvement from before.

Vanir took a while to think things over carefully, before he finally nodded his head in accept and said, "**I will. Even if these should prove to be my last actions alive, then I wish for them to be to at least be of some help to free you and the elven nation from Mercury's hold**".

It was good enough for Blödhgarm, whom quickly began to explain the outlines of his escape-plan, though he omitted certain bits for now to make sure that Vanir would do as he said. His friend might never forgive him for this deception, but Blödhgarm felt that he had to do things this way. There was no other choice for him, but there still was for Vanir.

After outlining his plan, Vanir agreed that it just might be possible, but also made several inquiries into matters that Blödhgarm had not initially thought of, and together, the two finally began to formulate a plan that could actually be put into action.

It was Vanir that proposed that they hide the gravel among the contents of the bucket that served as each of theirs lavatory, but they had to make sure that there was not too much mixed in it, or else, someone might notice.

Though it was an Alagaësian human that emptied their buckets each morning, they could not be sure that he would not rat them out for some reward from his new masters.

With Blödhgarm's claws, the work went far quicker than it otherwise would have, and they had ample reason to hurry, as Vanir had explained that it was custom for the entire cell to undergo a thorough inspection every other week, and if they had not escaped before that happened, then they would surely be found out.

Eight days after the plan had been begun, Blödhgarm was able to pull the fastening on his chain out of the wall, but so as to make sure that the guards did not notice, he made sure to put it back in as quickly as it had come out.

The two stayed in their cell until the guards once again showed up like clockwork to bring them their meal. As always, the guard that went inside the cell, checked Blödhgarm's collar first, before he moved over to Vanir.

Blödhgarm had to resist the urge to try anything while the human's back was turned, as his dökkálfar partner stood ready in the door. It would have been suicide to try anything against such an opponent when he was not armed.

Just as the guard was about to finish checking Vanir's collar, Vanir moved as swift as a striking snake and headbanged the guard that was checking his collar. Blödhgarm remained rooted in place, though with an adopted look of surprise, as the other guard drew his sword and hurried over to pacify the threat, not sparing Blödhgarm more than a cursory glance, as the two guards would be out of range from his chain.

What the second guard had not expected was for Blödhgarm to pull out the chain from the wall the moment that his back was turned, after which he made quick work of the second guard by pulling his head back and digging his fangs into the man's throat, acting in much the same way as the forest cat, whose mane that he had copied.

The first guard barely had time to register this before Vanir snapped his neck with his bare hands. After both of them had been disposed of, Blödhgarm searched the second one for the key to unlock the other cell doors, while Vanir used the sword of one of them to break his chain, which unfortunately also broke the sword.

"**I find it incredible that that actually worked**", Vanir commented as the two began moving out of their cell.

Blödhgarm was carrying the other sword, while Vanir had to make due with a dagger. Though they both wished to free the other prisoners in the other cells, they had learnt their lesson from when Vanir had to break his chain with one of the swords, and they could not afford to lose the other one this early into the escape just to free one other prisoner, which was why they were hoping to get the collar key from the ward's office before anyone noticed their jailbreak.

They met two other guards on their way, but though they tried to take them down quickly, the sound of warning bells soon began to ring throughout the dungeons. Evidently, one of them had been able to warn the others telepathically.

"**Which way to the ward's office?**", Blödhgarm asked Vanir as they ran past yet another intersection.

"**The next staircase should lead down to it**", Vanir replied beside him, "**but if we go up, then it should lead out of here**".

"**Then this is where we part ways, my friend**", Blödgharm said as they stopped at the staircase, "**I will go and try to find the queen, but you must escape and find the Shadeslayers. I saw one of them escape from the battle, and you have told me that the other has escaped as well, and if there are anyone in this world that can find a way to free us, then it is them**".

"**No!**", Vanir objected strongly, as Blödhgarm had known that he would, "**your life is more important than mine, so if anything, it should be I that should search for the queen and you that should go aid the Shadeslayers**".

"**My duty lies with the queen's life, that cannot be changed, and as her close advisor, I know for certain that she would order you to obey me now. Do you wish to disobey the queen by staying here?**", Blödhgarm heavily used the sense of honour that had woken Vanir from his despair, but they had little time to waste here, so he had to be as quick as possible.

"…**I understand. Be careful, Blödhgarm-elda**", Vanir said with gritted teeth, as he finally bowed his head in acceptance, before he turned around and disappeared up the staircase.

Blödhgarm took one last look at the promise of freedom, before he turned downwards towards all but certain failure. He had known that the chances of him actually succeeding in finding and rescuing the queen were slim at best, even if the alarm had not already been sounded, but despite the grave odds, he knew that he simply never would take the other path while knowing that his queen was still captured.

In the end, he was captured in an ambush just outside of the ward's office, never having even laid eyes on the key that might unlock his queen's freedom, yet alone found the location of her cell. The guards stripped him of his stolen sword and beat him until he could not even stand, before the ward finally barked orders that Blödhgarm did not hear for the ringing in his head.

They dragged him up some stair and down the corridor that led to what Blödhgarm remembered as the royal chambers. The heavy oaken door was opened and a guard went inside for a brief period, before he came out again and ordered Blödhgarm to be brought inside.

The inside of the room was just as spacious as Blödhgarm remembered from his few visits, but The Empire's banner, which had once hung proudly behind the desk that took up the centre of the room, was now replaced by the banner of the Silver Wave Alliance, which was a blue ship that rode on high silvery waves.

Standing in front of the desk was the traitorous bastard himself, with a female dökkálfar that held a leather-inbound folder in her hands, standing slightly behind and to the side of him, and, what Blödhgarm assumed to be his chief bodyguard, standing at the other side.

A hissing sound initially drew Blödhgarm's attention away from the other occupants of the room and towards a large black cat-looking animal that looked very much like it wanted to tear out his throat right this moment. It figured that a man as twisted as Mercury would keep such pets.

The hissing stopped with one look from the creature's master, before Mercury directed his gaze unto Blödgharm and eerily calmly said, "now now, Blödgharm, why would you go and do such a thing when we treated you so well?"

Blödhgarm was not sure what he was most angry at, the words coming out of the traitor's mouth or the tone that he said them in, but none of it really mattered anyway, as he was only interested in knowing one thing, "**what have you done to the queen?**"

Instead of answering his question, Mercury calmly walked over to the desk, where he opened a long wooden container on it and withdrew what Blödhgarm recognized as the two parts that would make a dwarven hûthvir.

Mercury assembled the weapon with ease and began to twirl it around like one would a regular staff, only this one had a sword blade attached to both ends of it. Blödhgarm was almost certain that the traitor would never answer his question, when Mercury's voice, though bored as it sounded to be, broke the silence that had descended upon them, "do you know what this is?"

"Yes, it is a hûthvir", Blödhgarm answered easily, as he saw no point in denying his knowledge of it.

"Correct, it is a hûthvir", Mercury agreed, as he kept playing with the deadly weapon, which could severely injure anyone in the room if he slipped even just a little, "but more importantly, it is also the symbol that was sent to me earlier this day to signal that the last of the dwarven kingdom has surrendered to my forces".

"What does that have to do with my queen?", Blödhgarm asked irritated, as he saw no point in this conversation.

"Well, you see, when I showed the elven queen the sword of Gilderien the Wise, which was the elven kingdom's equivalent of this hûthvir, she became rather…upset and…unwilling to conduct a civilized conversation about the future of her realm", Mercury answered eerily calmly, "I am afraid that I had to terminate the discussion rather abruptly, though she should begin her return-journey to Ellesméra any day now, where she will once again be reunited with her late mate".

"**You murdered her?!**", Blödgharm shouted as realization set in, and in a fit of strength that he did not know that he had in him, he somehow managed to break free from the holds of the two guards that held him and lunge forward towards the traitorous backstabbing madman that had dared to lay a finger on his queen.

His fangs were bared and ready to sink into flesh, and his claws were out and ready to tear open the flesh of this monster, but in a movement that was almost too fast for Blödhgarm to follow, Mercury somehow managed to turn an end of the hûthvir in his direction.

The force of Blödhgarm's own lunge was what impaled him upon the deadly weapon, and as the weapon was held outwards, Mercury was too far away for Blödhgarm to lay a scratch on his person, though he supposed that he really did not have all that much left in him anymore, as the blade had expertly pierced his heart when it had gone in.

Mercury seemed to know this as well, as he swiftly retracted the blade from Blödhgarm's body, leaving Blödhgarm to fall forward without the strength to do anything else, as the puddle of blood grew bigger underneath him.

"Have this cleaned and added to my collection", Blödhgarm thought that he had Mercury say, as the hazy figure of Mercury handed a hazy-looking hûthvir to another hazy person.

"What should be done about the other escapees?", someone asked as Blödhgarm's life slipped away. They did not even bother to acknowledge his presence anymore, as everyone, Blödhgarm included, knew that he would be dead within moments.

"The female poses no threat", Blödgharm heard Mercury say, as his eyes finally drifted shut, "as long as we have her dragon, she will not do anything, and as for the oth-"

Blödhgarm never heard got to hear what would happen to his friend, Vanir.

* * *

Yeah, so...that ends Blödhgarm's story as well...

Anyone else up for cake right now?


	13. The birth ofsomething

hey, I am uploading this a bit early because I am not sure whether I will have access to internet for the duration of next week, so if no new chapter arrives this Thursday, then despair not, because I should at the very least be ready to catch up next Sunday.

Until then, enjoy!

* * *

**The birth of…something**

**Loivissa POV(eight weeks after the battle)  
**"I will do anything to bring down Mercury the Traitorous", Loivissa boldly declared before the entire assembly.

Silence, complete and utter silence was what her declaration was met with. It was not the condescending type of silence that was often used against fools that spoke out of turn, but rather a more surprised and astonished silence that seemed to have frozen time itself.

The playful lighting of the torches that decorated the walls of the dungeon underneath Stronghammer Keep, provided the only source of movement from the other seven people that were still seated around the round wooden table.

To Loivissa's immediate right, her brother sat, still gaping at her standing form unintelligently, and to her immediate left sat Aaron, with his father, Earl Karl, next to him, and with his younger brother Garth sitting on the other side of their father.

Next to Loivissa's brother sat the only known dragon rider that had escaped capture when Estildirin had been taken, though others might have also escaped, but they had instead chosen to remain in hiding. She was a dwarven dragon rider named Dweyrn, whom had been returning from the wilds after the attack had begun and had therefore had the opportunity to turn back from what she had perceived as an already lost battle, though she had not been overly courteous with the exact details up until now.

Dweyrn's dragon was named Augms, which was supposed to mean something in the dwarven language, but Loivissa knew not what it was. Augms was a pretty ordinary, if somewhat small, brown dragon, albeit he was a bit twitchy and uncannily nervous around any flying animals larger than an owl.

Loivissa guessed that it had something to do with the battle that had taken place in the air above Estildirin, but she could not be sure, as both dragon and rider were fiercely protective of each other and the exact details of what had happened in Estildirin, along with how they had found Loivissa and Evandar here.

Next to Dweyrn sat Nari, whom had previously been a guardsman stationed in Ceris, before the Alliance forces had all but rolled over the city, that is. Nari had been directed to Carvahall by a mixture of elven and Ceunon collaborators, and was supposed to act as their voice in this meeting.

And finally, between Nari and Garth, and almost directly opposite of Loivissa's seat, sat the both most welcome and most puzzling addition to their little conclave; Vanir, the former elven ambassador that was supposed to still be in jail in Ilirea.

Vanir had been the last to find them, arriving in Carvahall only yesterday. He had supposedly found them by guessing that they went north and then listening to the whispers of nature that signalled the presence of any dragon rider. It was a skill that Loivissa was most glad that Mercury did not know of, or else he would have probably already broken down the doors.

"Sister…", Evandar said, though it sounded neither like a reprimand nor a praise. It was more like a statement to emphasize his astonishment at her declaration.

It was not an astonishment that was hard to understand by anyone that knew her, as her earlier declaration had been the first time that she had uttered Mercury's name in over four centuries, though she had begun tentatively using it in her thoughts in the past few weeks in order to break any hold that he might still have had over her.

Most of the occupants of the room did not actually know her well enough to know of this fact, but the general vibe of those that did was pretty contagious, so they just acted along like they all knew exactly why what she had said was so surprising.

Loivissa's reason for using this specific time and place to utter the name for the first time in centuries was to both make sure that everyone knew exactly what her stance in this was, as well as giving a shock effect that would hopefully direct the group to agree with her stance.

In truth, this ragtag bunch of various people from various nations and groups' sole reasoning for meeting was pure chance and the faith that people had to the Shadeslayer name. No meeting had been called and no messages had been sent out, but somehow, through the workings of fate, this group of diverse people had gathered in Carvahall and were now about to discuss what they should actually DO about the current state of the continent of Alagaësia and its people.

The holdings of the Empire, along with the urgal lands and the entirety of the Spine, but with the exception of the lands surrounding Ceunon, had all been renamed as the Silver Wave Alliance province of Albion. Du Weldenvarden had been joined with the lands of Ceunon and the scarcely explored and even more scarcely settled lands northeast of the North Sea to form the province of Bedegraine, while the Beor Mountains had been joined with the Hadarac Desert and the stretch of land between the eastern tips of Du Weldenvarden and the Beor Mountains to form the province of Lav Fjäll.

The lands further to the east had probably been given the same treatment, but no one had heard much about what was happening there, so the specific details were rather hard to come by.

It was just like the Mercury that Loivissa had known all those years ago to do something like this. In fact, what he was doing now and what he did to the old Ra'zac Empire was so similar that Loivissa had spent more than a few nights wondering whether she should have seen the truth about his nature back then and stopped him before he ever even got started.

She considered the fact that she had been too blind to see it back then to be her second-greatest failure ever, second only her blindness to his charades during their time in Teirm. It was a large part of why she had to make sure that he died for his crimes, so that she could be absolved of hers.

"My lady, we have not yet agreed upon such a course of action", Nari hesitantly commented from his seat, "if we antagonize them further, then the Alliance forces might start cracking down on the populace".

"We stand by Lady Shadeslayer in this matter", Earl Karl backed her up, though that was to be expected, as his eldest son, Evan, had not been among the survivors of the battle, "is your new 'archduke' really going to let the bastard get away with taking so many of our brothers and sisters' lives? Need I remind you that it was Mercury's actions that cost your nation the life of its queen?"

"No one needs to be reminded of anything", Nari grumbled, now showing the first sign of contempt since he had arrived in Carvahall, "but I will not stand for your blatant slandering of Lord Däthedr. It was only thanks to his successful negotiations that Du Weldenvarden was given a ruler from its own population, or need I mention how the new ruler of the dwarven kingdom has yet to even set step on Alagaësian soil? Or how Mercury himself seems to have taken up direct governance of both the human and urgal lands? Losing Queen Islanzadi has been a mighty blow to our nation and its people, and I assure you that it is something that will not be forgotten quickly, but we have to consider the wellbeing of the rest of the population as well".

"Wait! If the queen is dead, then what happened to Blödhgarm?", Vanir suddenly exclaimed.

"His corpse was shipped back alongside the queen's and buried with full honours next to hers. Why?", Nari answered confused at the sudden burst of emotion from Vanir, who had otherwise been relatively quiet until now.

"I wish that he had let me go in his stead instead", Vanir mused sadly, as he buried his head in his hands, "why, oh why did I not refuse to do as he asked?"

"What are you talking about? Speak plainly, for I believe that this might be of interest to our discussion here as well", Evandar said calmingly but still with a tone that demanded answers.

"I suppose that it is time that I told everyone of how I escaped my captivity then", Vanir said, only now removing his hands from his face, before he started his explanation of the events that had transpired in the dungeons of Ilirea Castle.

It was a new tale to Loivissa, and one that reinforced her belief that Mercury had to be put down for the good of everyone, but throughout it all, she also received the distinct impression that Vanir was desperately wishing that Blödhgarm, and not he, had been the one to live, and that he somehow had to atone for Blödhgarm's sacrifice.

It was a dangerous mixture of emotions to have in someone, as they could compel him to do entirely irrational things, but if she could make Vanir realize that atonement could come from joining her cause in helping all of Alagaësia be rid of the tyrant, then she would have a warrior whose resolution would never falter.

She would not be using Vanir's sorrow to her advantage, not really, just directing him to do some good in the name of it. Everyone would be better off for it in the end.

"That sheds light on how one of you escaped imprisonment", Nari commented, before he directed his gaze towards Loivissa, "now, I believe that it is time that you told us your story".

Everyone's eyes turned towards her as they sat there and waited in anticipation. It was highly uncomfortable for Loivissa, but she did not let it show as she steeled herself for the inevitable plethora of questions that came with her story every time that she told it.

Sure enough, the first question that came, as always, was, "are you sure that you were not let go under the orders of Mercury himself?", and as always, her answer remained that Ilumëo had vowed in the Ancient language that she had received no orders from Mercury to set her free.

"Do you think her sympathetic to our cause?", Evandar prodded from beside Loivissa.

"No, I do not even think that she liked the idea of setting me free", Loivissa replied a little surprised, as this was the first time that that particular question was asked, "she gave me the impression that she was doing it out of a twisted sense of loyalty to her master, but after meeting with him, I highly doubt that he would be too pleased with her if he ever found out what she did".

"Interesting, though we are still skirting the issue of what we should do about the current situation", Evandar obviously tried to get them back on track from the many detours that their conversation had taken, "does everyone agree that we cannot allow our homes to be taken from us and the lives of our brethren to be extinguished by some power-hungry lunatic without doing anything to stop him?"

A general chorus of acknowledgement went around the table, though some were far less enthusiastic than others.

"Good, then now that we have established that we all wish to see an end to Mercury's tyranny, how do we go about actually accomplishing it?", Evandar continued.

"We could organize a revolt? Show the people of Alagaësia that there are still people fighting for their freedom?", Garth suggested eagerly, "we could become the new Varden that tear down the rule of the tyrannical oppressor".

"Openly revolting would only result in the death of everyone at this table and anyone that would be foolish enough to join in it", Nari scoffed at the idea, "you speak just as a child would, a child that has never felt the fear of death creep into him as he witnesses the true horrors of war. No, if that is to be our cause of action, then the elves will not join you. Our numbers have been limited enough as it is, and unlike the mortal races, our race does not recover from such a decrease in numbers for many centuries, millennia even".

"What ARE you willing to do exactly, because it seems to me that all you do is complain?", Garth demanded angrily.

If Nari had been offended by the tone, he did not show it, as he merely folded his hands atop the table and calmly clarified, "the group that I represent have discussed this matter with Lord Däthedr before my arrival here, and he told us that though he is sympathetic to our cause, his first obligation would have to be the continuation of the elven race as a whole. To that effect, he will be willing to unofficially see through fingers with minor occurrences within his domain, but if he feels that our actions might draw unwanted attention from the Alliance, then he would have to put a stop to our actions in such a way that his domain would not be punished on our behalf".

"So essentially, he will tolerate our presence as long as we behave like good little dogs to our Alliance masters?", Garth scoffed, "might as well be slaves then".

"That was not what he said", Evandar interjected before the argument would spiral out of control, "as a ruler yourself, Earl Karl, you have to understand the sense of responsibility that Lord Däthedr feels towards his subjects, and the fact that he is still willing to see through fingers with anything that will not draw too much attention is a testament that he really is willing to help in any way that he can".

"Yeah right he is, as long as he-"

"Enough son! Do not object to matters that you do not understand!", Earl Karl cut off his youngest son, "I too have to consider the actions that I take in regards to the consequences of my subjects, and let me tell you that the thought of openly revolting fills me with dread when I think about all the lives in my earldom that would be lost. I can only begin to imagine the worries that someone responsible for the lives of so many must feel".

"But father, he killed brother", Garth continued to object as he turned to stare at his father in surprise, "surely, we are not going to let him get away with that?"

"We are not!", Loivissa said firmly, "but your father and Nari are correct in that open war would be akin to suicide for us, as well as many of our people. Even if we decided to go through with such a course of action, I highly doubt that many would be willing to join us. Not after what happened to the grand army. This is why my brother and Dweyrn had to send their dragons to Vroengard to act as a distraction to Mercury's troops to hide our true location".

"I assume that you have a different plan in mind then?", Nari questioned.

"If we kill the head of the snake, the body withers", Loivissa said, "let us bide our time and prepare until the snake is asleep, and when we are ready and it is happily relaxing in its victory, we strike! One swift blow with the sole purpose of eradicating the cause of the evil that has hit this land!"

"You suggest that we do nothing until our enemy turns his back to us?", Vanir asked confused, "how do we know that he will ever do such a thing?"

"We do not, and I am not", Loivissa corrected him, before she turned to her brother and asked, "what was the primary reason that the Black Hand was such a threat during the Shadow War, despite not even counting half as many men as a single city guard at the time?"

"Because no one knew who was a member, so they had freedom to act indiscriminately and infiltrate even the higher echelons of power…", Evandar answered before you could literally see the wheels turning inside his head as he understood what she was trying to say, "so if we take a page out of their book, stick close to the ground and do not cause too much trouble, we will be able to gather resources and information enough to find a way to kill Mercury!"

"Exactly!", Loivissa confirmed, "Mercury is not like Galbatorix was. Unlike the mad king, this tyrant is not content to stay in his castle and reign from there. Already, he has made a trip to both Teirm and Dras Leona within the last seven weeks, so if we can catch him unaware on the road, then we will have our chance to ambush and kill him".

"I suppose this means that I shall have to take up office in Ilirea then", Earl Karl sighed, "I mean, if we want inside information, then what better way to get it than directly from the source, aye?"

"Would Mercury not be suspicious if you suddenly declared that you wished to move to the Ilirean court, father?", Aaron spoke up for the first time since the meeting had started, "not to mention that he might know of our relations with the dragon rider order in the past".

"I do not think that we have to be afraid that Mercury follows the movements of every lord in his realm", Loivissa assured Aaron with a comforting hand on his shoulder, "besides, if he already knew of your family's affiliation with the riders, then he would have already sent soldiers to bust open the doors to check whether I was hiding here".

"See son, there is little for you to worry about", the earl agreed, "besides, your uncle, Lord Telvin, owes me a favour, so I do not even think that I would have to officially request a position in the court, as I could likely get him to request my presence there instead, but I want you and your brother to remain in Carvahall and learn everything that I taught your elder brother in his stead".

"Then it is decided then", Nari commented, "I will talk to the rest of my group upon my return to Du Weldenvarden, but I feel confident that they will agree with me that this is the best course of action. We elves will begin infiltrating the lands in the form of traders and begin recruiting villagers to our side. I am sure that a wide network of informers and possible reinforcements would come in handy".

"I feel that we should choose an official leader to better organize our efforts", Vanir interjected, "I propose the Lady Loivissa. Blödhgarm's last order to me was to find the Shadeslayers, because only a Shadeslayer can turn the darkest of situations around".

"I would like to recommend Lord Evandar instead", Dweyrn said nervously from her seat, and when everyone's gazes turned to her, she squirmed and continued, "I mean, he is the senior-most dragon rider left, and therefore, technically the lead dragon rider. Not to mention that he has experience doing this sort of work from when he was the leader of the dragon riders in Alagaësia".

Loivissa had mostly forgotten about the rider's very existence because she had done such a good job of remaining inconspicuous during the meeting, obviously a lasting effect from whatever had happened in Estildirin, so hearing her openly object to anything came as somewhat of a surprise to Loivissa.

"I suppose that we shall have to have a vote then", Nari said, "unless anyone else wants to contribute another candidacy? No, then I would like for the two candidates to temporarily leave the room to give us privacy to openly discuss this".

Loivissa nodded and left with her brother quickly coming behind her, but the moment that the heavy steel door leading into the room had closed, she turned to her brother and said, "they will choose you".

There was no accusation in her voice, nor any regret. It was clear as day to her that if the timid Dweyrn was willing to stand up and propose another candidate, then her chances were not very high.

"I am afraid that I must agree with you", Evandar nodded, "they likely feel that you have too much of an emotional investment in this matter to see things as clearly as a leader must".

"I suppose…", Loivissa breathed as she leaned against the wall, "but then again, if I am to be honest, I still think that I would go after Mercury even if he turned all of our lands back to us, so I guess that that means that they would be right, would it not?"

"This is something that I will never forgive him for", Evandar said angrily as he leaned against the wall beside her, and upon her questioning look, he clarified, "you were once so full of life and joy, but when you returned from the war, it felt as if it was not really you that returned, not really anyway".

"I know", Loivissa sighed, "hopefully, that will end when Mercury's life does".

The door opened and Aaron's head came through the crack, "we have made the decision", before it disappeared again.

Evandar looked at where Aaron's head had been, before he looked sadly back at Loivissa and softly asked, "and if it does not?"

"Then the sister that you knew has truly been lost forever", Loivissa replied with a wry smile as she pushed from the wall and headed inside again.

Once both were inside and stood at attention, Nari took the word, "we have come to a decision, and despite some very vocal protests on the matter", at this, he sent a dirty look in Aaron's direction, whom Loivissa noticed blushed at the accusation, "most of us have agreed that it should be Evandar that leads us".

"I suspected as much", Loivissa nodded her head at Nari to show that there was no hard feelings between them.

Afterwards, everyone sat down again, but before anyone could start on another subject, Evandar took the word, "so, now we have a group, we know its aim and the way we wish to achieve it in, and we have selected a leader for it, but there is one thing that I feel that it is still missing; a name".

"Yes, a name would solidify our unity and help our collaborators better know that they are dealing with more than a few people", Nari agreed.

"Then I would like to suggest Aiedail as the name of the group", Loivissa commented.

"The name of your lost sword?", Vanir asked confused.

"No, the name of the morning star that my old sword was named after", Loivissa corrected him, "it may be selfish of me to wish this, but the last message that I ever received from Adûn was that the morning star shines the brightest in the darkest of night, so let us be the light that signals the end of this night that has befallen the land".

"The light that shines through the night…I like it", Nari said with a smile tugging at his lips, "all in favour of Aiedail, please raise your hand".

Hands went up all around the table and the name was unanimously accepted. After that, they continued discussing the finer details of what they were to do for many hours more, before they eventually called it a night, which was well and good, as it had apparently already been night for a long time by then.

As Loivissa returned to her room, she could not help but feel that this was the birth of something that was so daring that it would either go down in the annals of history as the single greatest achievement ever…or the worst. No matter which, she would see it through to the very end.

* * *

And so, Aiedail has been formed to oppose Mercury, and we also got to see some more of the more personal consequences that resulted from Mercury's wipeout of the Grand Army. Do not despair though, because in regards to the number of deaths, the worst is over.


	14. Gaining is easy, keeping takes work

Hey, I found internet, though it is not exactly close to where I am staying, which is why I am only uploading now.

* * *

**Gaining is easy, keeping takes work**

**Ilumëo POV(two and a half months after the battle)  
**"Let me start off by telling you that we very much appreciate you giving us this opportunity, my lord. We at The Report know that you lead a very active live, and therefore have had to deny several of our requests for interviews in the past", said a human male, in his late twenties with sleek black hair, gangly slim fingers that held a notepad and a pen, and a pair of cunning green eyes.

"It is my pleasure, Mr Carian", Mercury replied easily with a reassuring smile from his position behind his desk, "The Report has always held my interest".

Mr Carian, as Ilumëo was painfully aware, was a reporter from the newspaper The Report, which issued a weekly edition that covered everything from the big happenings in the Alliance to the regional news of the province that it was being issued in.

It had offices in virtually every province of the Alliance, with a few notable exceptions being Coldharbour and the jungle province of Dimholt, and was generally viewed as the main supplier of news to the commoners of the Alliance.

The Report had started its life as Mercury sending back and publishing his reports on what was happening in his various campaigns, which was also why it was named as such, but it had soon grown to be a corporation on its own, which sent journalist all across the globe to uncover stories that were not being published by themselves.

A mere mentioning in the paper's interstate section could in terms of fame, or infamy, be quite literally compared to having won a major sports tournament, simply because the interstate section was a section that was published in the same way in every branch office of The Report.

The Report had, as either an unknown or a planned side-effect, Ilumëo knew not which when it came to guessing just how far into the future Mercury planned when he set such motions into action, skyrocketed the literacy of the common populace, whom all eagerly wanted to learn what news were happening across the Alliance.

In fact, Ilumëo did not believe that there was a single village in the entire Alliance, not counting the provinces that had no branch offices, which did not at least have one subscription for The Report, though in many of the smaller villages, the entire village banded together to make the subscription.

The thing that made it possible for the newspaper to coordinate such efforts over such long distances on a weekly basis was the Postal- and Scrying Network, or PSN, which had offices in every major town or city across the Alliance.

The postal- and scrying offices were, as the name suggested, the local offices that took care of the postal and scrying services of the Alliance. They were all government owned and if you paid the fee, you could have them send packages or letters across the world for you, or if you paid an extra fee, you could have them scry the contents of your letter to another office, which would then deliver the message manually, and if you paid a really hefty extra sum of gold, then you could even get them to teleport any package or letter to another office for express delivery.

The cost of having your letter scryed was significantly cheaper than having it teleported, but the price still depended solely on the amount of words in your letter, so most people that used the scrying service tended to be rather brief and to the point. The teleporting services on the other hand, were priced solely on the mass of your package, as that particular detail corresponded directly to how much energy it would take to teleport it.

Though the possibility of teleporting and scrying directly to the other offices technically existed, the trouble that it would take for the mages employed at the local offices to manually visit every local office in the entire Alliance in order to be able to safely teleport packages to them, or having a pair of mirrors linked between each of the hundreds of local offices for scrying, made the venture all but impossible.

Instead of this, interprovincial hubs of sorts had been created, so that the local offices forwarded their messages and letters to their hub, which would then either send the items to one of its designated offices or to the hub responsible for the office in question, which would then forward the package or letter from there.

The concept of the PSN was also one of Mercury's earlier inventions, literally dating it back hundreds of years, and if you believed common folklore about why Mercury had created it in the first place, it was because he had at one time found himself in need of sending an urgent message to one of his supreme commanders, but no mage in his army had the necessary experience to scry any of the supreme commander's aides, so he had created it to make sure that something like that never happened again.

Ilumëo knew better though, as the PSN had absolutely nothing to do with military affairs, and were likely intended from the start to never have been responsible for such. The explanation that she found far more likely was that Mercury had simply wanted to bind the Alliance closer together and had fused the existing elements of different worlds to do so.

It was after all, hardly the first time that Mercury had taken a spell, or even an entire branch of magic, and used it to solve mundane problems in a way that had quite literally taken all of the mysticism out of the magic, so much so in fact, that commoners would not even consider that it was magic anymore, but simply another part of daily life.

Anyway, Ilumëo was letting her mind drift again. Not that she actually had much to do during this interview, as she was simply expected to stand at her spot at Mercury's side and remain quiet unless spoken to. The other two occupants were just finishing with the pleasantries that always came before the actual interview.

"So, down to business then", Mr Carian said as he moved his pen to the notepad, "shall we start off with the lethrblaka in the room?"

"I would prefer that you not use that expression, as several of the lethrblaka race find it offensive, but yes, let us start with the obvious", Mercury responded calmly, while still smiling his reassuring smile.

"Noted", Mr Carian said as he scribbled something down on the notepad, "it has been confirmed by numerous sources that you, your lordship, was directly responsible for the explosion that killed off nearly a quarter of a million people in your latest victory. Can you confirm this?"

"I can confirm that it was I that ordered the preparations for the explosion to be made and ultimately gave the order to set if off", Mercury answered easily.

"Then I am sure that our readers would love to understand how you orchestrated such an action", the reporter said eagerly, "surely, the public has a right to know of a discovery of this magnitude. Was it an invention of your own, or did you confiscate another person's work?"

"Mr Carian", Mercury said with a far more eerie smile than before, "surely you know better than to ask me about matters of military confidentiality, as you know that I cannot divulge any such information at the current time".

Well, technically, as the lord commander of ALL of the Alliance's military affairs, Mercury could pretty much do whatever he wanted with such information, but Ilumëo saw no point in divulging that particular detail.

"Of course, I understand", Mr Carian said with a shrug, likely having already anticipated that the likelihood of getting an answer was slim at best, before he ploughed on, "then what are your thoughts on that many people are beginning to refer to the battle as an outright massacre?"

"I believe that it was your field reporter that started the reference in his description of it", Mercury commented with an unconcerned shrug, as if the matter of whether he had orchestrated a massacre, did not overly interest him, "other than that, I have little thoughts concerning it".

"You mean to say that you do not deny that the battle was a one-sided massacre then?", the reporter asked eagerly as his pen flew across the notepad, "enemy death toll ranges around a quarter of a million, nearly their entire army, while your own side hardly suffered any losses. Many of my readers would call that a massacre?"

"Those that would have obviously never been in a battle", Mercury answered matter-of-factly, and though the reporter did not see it, Ilumëo recognized the glint in her lord's eyes, and it was not something that she ever wished to have directed upon herself, "before you call that particular battle a massacre and insinuate that I should somehow feel ashamed of it, let me ask you a question, Mr Carian.

During what part of the battle did I, or any of my men, do anything that should make us feel ashamed? Is your reasoning for the 'massacre' labelling that not enough of my own troops died during the battle to consider it a fair fight, and if so, would you then like to be the one to tell the families of those people that their fathers, brothers, sons, mothers, sisters or daughters had to die simply to make the fight seem fair?"

Mercury let the questions hang in the air, obviously not willing to go on before Mr Carian had given an answer, and as time ticked by, a slightly shameful Mr Carian said, "…well, no, of course no one wants to inflict additional deaths, but even you have to admit that a quarter of a million enemy casualties is a pretty high death toll".

"Yes, I admit that it is regrettable that the enemy force numbered in such numbers, but I gave them ample opportunity to surrender both before and after the battle, and the lives of those that did were spared, so in the end, every life lost was because that person chose fight over flight", Mercury reasoned, "as you said so yourself, they were enemies, and therefore treated in the same manner that Alliance protocol dictate that all enemies of the state should be treated".

"Well, I suppose that if you put it that way…", the reporter said hesitantly, as Ilumëo noticed what she presumed to be him scratching over old entries on his notepad, "then should we move on to other topics then?"

"As you wish, it is after all your interview", Mercury said with a gesture of his hand.

"It is my understanding that many members of the Tribunal were most surprised when you named a local, an elf called Lord Däthedr to be exact, as the archduke of Bedegraine", Mr Carian said, "could you inform the readers of your reasoning for this decision, and whether or not you believe that the Tribunal will approve of your decision?"

"My reasons for choosing that particular individual were many, but the most prominent one that I care to note is that I believe that with his help, the transition phase for the inhabitants will go much smoother than with a foreigner with little understanding of their customs at the helm", Mercury elaborated, "whether the Tribunal ends up agreeing with my decision is entirely up to them to decide upon when the province in question has been stabilized".

Since Mercury was the lord commander, his position technically allowed him to instate any and all governors to the provinces that were for some reason considered unstable enough to warrant his attention.

It did not however mean that he had the final say in the matter, as the Tribunal could revoke any archduke from office by a two thirds majority vote from the moment that the province had been stabilized, though the process of revoking an archduke firstly needed another vote to determine whether there was even grounds for complaint in the ruler's conduct that would legitimize casting a vote on whether he or she should be replaced with another.

Essentially, this meant that as long as the people that Mercury brought in to act as temporary archdukes were competent and provided reasonable results, they were more often than not allowed to stay in office.

"Even so, you still brought in an Dalaxian to be archduke of Lav Fjäll, and an Alalëan for the far eastern province of Latveria, not to mention that you have yet to decide upon an archduke for the Albion province", Mr Carian commented.

"My reasoning for my choices in the former two provinces are the same as for the province of Bedegraine, but I do not believe that complete cultural understanding from the very start will be as important to govern those provinces as it is for the province of Bedegraine", Mercury reasoned, "and as for the province of Albion, I will be running my operations from here and will therefore be the acting archduke, though purely temporarily of course, as no person is allowed to be archduke of more than one province at any given time".

"Interesting", Mr Carian said as he continued to scribble, "then if you do not mind me asking, as acting archduke, what are your further plans for assimilating the province of Albion into the Alliance?"

The interview continued on for another hour or so, during which refreshments were brought up by a servant, before Mr Carian finally finished the last of his questions, with a bit of prodding from Ilumëo about how Mercury's next appointment was due soon.

His next appointment was a surveyor contracted to examine just how much damage had actually been done to the former nations of Alagaësia, along with projections on what absolutely had to be rebuilt and what needed to be built in the near future.

That particular meeting extended well past the hour and a half that Ilumëo had allotted to Mr Carian's interview, and they had to break for lunch in the middle of it, before they resumed immediately afterwards. Sometimes, others would come in to provide expertise on certain topics or others, but they were all excused once their function had been served.

Another two hours after the lunch break, there was only one topic remaining on their quite extensive list; the construction of proper public roads, complete with garrisons spread out over them to ward off bandits, between the cities of Albion and its neighbouring provinces.

It was generally considered custom that whenever a new province was created, its public transportation would be improved and expanded as necessary to keep up with the road-system of the rest of the Alliance, which were mostly copied from the original roads in the province of Damocles, though a few improvements had been made over the years.

The Alliance quite extensive efforts at keeping up proper ways of travelling between its provinces and cities were fuelled mostly because the tariffs on interprovincial trading were such a large part of its economy that it would likely collapse if trading became impossible.

The threat of such an economic collapse was why the navies of the Alliance hunted any pirates or sea-creatures that could possibly endanger trade-routes with a fervour usually reserved for dealing with traitors and deserters, and why the second-most important task of the provincial guards was to keep bandits away from the roads at all costs, with the most important simply being to make sure that the province's people were generally safe and secure.

"The construction of most of the major roads and their garrisons should be accomplished within schedule and be ready for use seven years from now", the surveyor said as he pointed to the map showing the planned roads that would form the backbone of the entire road-system, "we were initially concerned over some areas in the forest of Du Weldenvarden in the Bedegraine province, but experts brought in from the Dimholt province assure me that the forest should not give any delays beyond what we have already planned for".

The major roads formed a rough circle at the edges of the Hadarac-desert, which then had arms that extended out into the surrounding countryside, except in the Albion province, where another major road was planned to run down from Ceunon and then mostly follow the Spine all the way down to Feinster.

"You said 'most of the roads', meaning that there are problems elsewhere", Mercury commented.

"Yes, my lord, if you would direct your attention to the Lav Fjäll province, specifically the area between the Beor Mountains and the Hadarac-desert, where we have encountered certain obstacles in both the wildlife and the terrain that could set the project back by at least another year, if not two", the surveyor said apologetically.

"That is an issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible", Mercury stated as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "say, Ilumëo, when would I have the time to make a trip there?"

Ilumëo checked her folder for any major appointments in the near future, before she answered, "assuming that you also squeeze in an official meeting with Archduke Calares, I can free up three weeks for both the travelling and your other duties in three weeks' time".

"Good, close enough that it is still better than sending someone in my place. Let it be so then", Mercury nodded, before he directed his gaze back towards the other occupant of the room, "are there any other areas that needs my attention?"

"Not as long as you remain convinced that Estildirin should only be given roads up to where the Edda-river ends", the surveyor answered.

"It shall remain so", Mercury confirmed, "spanning a single long road across the entirety of The Brownlands simply to connect two cities is not worth the cost of building the road, let alone the manpower that it takes to safeguard it. Trade between the two provinces must simply remain on the waterway, as it has been until now".

After that was settled, the meeting was officially done and the two men shook hands and parted. Loivissa handed Mercury the reports for today, of which there were quite a few, before she went to check up on her own aides and inform them that they should begin preparations for Mercury's impending trip, but that they should do so quietly, as a large entourage would draw more attention than a small one would. Besides, Ilumëo's lord never had liked travelling in long caravans.

After that, she returned to his office to find him in the midst of reading a report on the Damoclean Democracy Trial. In short, it was a trial to test the effects of whether it would be beneficial, or possible at all, to utilize the Tribunal system on a provincial scale.

The trial was set to run for 50 years, with Mercury just having received the report for the 43rd year. Surveys of general population satisfaction, economic growth, public building projects and many many other factors were all being monitored and compiled into an annual report, and when the experiment was up in seven years' time, another three years was scheduled just to make heads and tails of the data gathered, before the Tribunal would finally make a decision on whether the system should be implemented in other provinces as well.

Though the overall government technically was elected every five years, it was the local lords and ladies of the countryside that held most of the local power and responsibility for making sure that their subjects upheld the law, so for the common people, not much had really changed.

As Mercury kept going through today's reports, Ilumëo started skimming through the issues for tomorrow. There were many that requested Mercury's time, and even more reports that simple wanted to be read, and it was a part of Ilumëo's job to choose which of them should reach Mercury's desk and which she could delegate to others.

A report on the debarkation of the new settlers caught her interest. A brief skimming showed that it had an unfortunate low number of smiths as opposed to what they needed, so she earmarked it for Mercury's desk.

The 'settlers' that the report spoke of where actually part of the creation of any new province, as the province in question had more often than not been won by blood, and so, the population of the province tended to be somewhat thinned out…and often rather angry about it.

Mercury's solution to this problem was to bring settlers in to colonize the provinces, thereby repopulating certain resources that had been drained and also fastening the assimilation process. The settlers also served to act as a source to draw fresh and willing recruits from to replenish the provincial guards, as the locals were sometimes not too fond of joining said Guard.

The settlers also served a fourth, less official, purpose, as they were always recruited from the beggars and poor in the Alliance cities. Essentially, before any major campaign was ever commenced, offers of apprenticeships to various crafts were circulated around, along with offers of land to plough and a small fund to start off by.

The poor, and even some regular commoners, clamoured for the spots on the transport ships, especially the lucrative craftsman spots, despite the inherent danger that lay in volunteering to be a settler, as there had often been numerous persecutions of the settlers at the start of any assimilation.

It was why the lower classes were being brought in for the job, as the regular craftsmen and merchants rarely felt up for the task of risking their perfectly good existence to try their luck somewhere else, where the local inhabitants could rise up against you at any given time.

Using the poor for the job also essentially solved the Alliance's problem about what to do with them, as they were now simply being shipped to another place where they could do something useful with their lives, but after this campaign was over, there would be no more lands to send settlers to and a new method would have to be developed for dealing with them.

_Oh well, not our problem_, Ilumëo shrugged and simply reached for the next report.

A flutter in her stomach was her only warning before she dropped everything and sprinted towards the window, which she swiftly proceeded to puke out from and down upon the tile-roof of the lower buildings.

"Are you okay?", she heard Mercury's voice from behind her as she retched once again.

"Yeah, I am sorry that you had to see that", Ilumëo apologized as she wiped her mouth, before noticing the waterskin that Mercury held out to her. She truly was sorry that he had had to witness it, as she had been fairly consistent in only doing it doing early in the morning hours until now.

"How long?", Mercury wanted to know, as she gurgled with the water from the waterskin.

"Since about a month before the battle", Ilumëo answered truthfully, "I did not want to bother you with it yet because it would not impede upon my duties for another while".

"Well, it is not like it is the first time that this has happened to me", Mercury commented, before seemingly changing topics entirely, "so, when is the wedding?"

_The wedding? Oh, right, I should probably tell the father of it_, Ilumëo mused, before she turned to Mercury and wryly said, "I have not exactly told him about it yet, so…"

"Alright, bring him here and I shall wed you two right now. I do have the authority to do so", Mercury offered half-jokingly, "unless of course you want an actual wedding with a party and everything, in which case, I could leave you behind to plan it while I am away on my visit to Lav Fjäll".

"It is probably best that you do", Ilumëo responded with a smile, "but that reminds me that one of the new reports concerns a rumour that a new group has sprung up with the sole intent of killing you. I put it in the folder to be delegated to Supreme Commander Varion, but thought that you should be aware of it because of your trip".

"Noted, and I approve of your decision", Mercury shrugged unconcerned, "remember to tell Varion that this group is simply the last of many with that purpose, and that he should not be overly concerned with them. Giving them publicity will only worsen the situation".

"I understand, but do you want me to use those exact words or am I allowed to rephrase them when I discuss the matter with Supreme Commander Varion?", Ilumëo asked.

"Do as you see fit to get the job done", Mercury waved it off, "though while we are at the subject, what of the _other_ project?"

"It is keeping up with schedule and should arrive in half a year", Ilumëo answered, knowing exactly to which of his many projects that he was referring to, before she added as an afterthought, "about the same time that I am due, actually".

"Oh, well, then I suppose that I shall have to do without you then", Mercury commented, "though you will need to select one of your aides to keep up with most of your duties during that period, with the exceptions being the more classified of your assignments, which I will take over until you can return to duty".

"Yes, of course", Ilumëo agreed instantly, having already begun her examination of which one would suit the job best in her own absence, _Lily will likely make a good choice, but she has an awfully hard time keeping secrets form Jorn, so perhaps not? Then Kanra maybe?_

Ilumëo was torn out of her musings when she saw a small trail of blood make its way down from Mercury's nostril and towards his lips. He obviously had not discovered it yet.

"You are bleeding", she pointed out as she nodded towards the spot.

"I am?", Mercury asked as he brought his hand up to wipe the area, which indeed revealed the red blood on his fingers, making him absentmindedly muse, "indeed, I am".

"Is it?", Ilumëo asked in clear reference to Mercury as to what she meant. She hoped that it was not.

"I am afraid so", Mercury confirmed her fears, "the time is fast approaching now".

"When?", Ilumëo asked, already dreading the answer.

"I think that I can hold it off for long enough to finalize certain key aspects, but it will be before my endgame comes to fruition, of that, I am absolutely sure", he answered her, showing far less trepidation at the prospect of it than Ilumëo was.

"…I see", Ilumëo said unnerved at the prospect, "if you would excuse me, I have to tell someone that he is going to be a father", before she hurried out of the room.

She did not know whether it was the pregnancy enhancing and twisting her emotions, but she simply could not deal with that right now, so she continued to look for the father of her child. For some reason, his reaction to her news was far less daunting to her than having to concentrate on the state of her lord right now.

* * *

Uhh, the mystery continues...

In a related note, I originally wrote this chapter both as a prelude to certain elements of the main plot and subplots, and to show that this is when the real work to conquer and keep new land begins(hence the title).


	15. A chance

Good...morning, good morning, good morning and welcome to this Mammoth Monday's episode of (drum roll) Phoenix-fire! (Applause)

Starring today is...the lovely Loivissa! Enjoy!

* * *

**A chance**

**Loivissa POV**  
It had been almost a month and a half since Aiedail had been formed. During that time, Nari had returned to his group and had managed to accomplish what he had promised, so that a network was slowly but surely being formed over the lands of Alagaësia.

Evandar, Delvaria, Dweyrn and Augms were currently out scouting for a base of operations that they could permanently settle into, as there was no way that they could have continued running their operations from the basement of Stronghammer Keep without being discovered by Alliance forces in the very near future.

While they were doing that, Vanir traversed the ranges of the Spine to seek alliances with the local urgal tribes, a task which his ambassador background would complement quite well. From what Loivissa had last heard from him, it was not going overly well.

Earl Karl was still stuck in transit somewhere between actually being given a position in Ilirea and…not being. The specific details still eluded Loivissa, but she understood that the gist of the problem seemed to be that there was not actually any important position available that was not currently in the midst of being filled by some foreigner.

Until Earl Karl came into position, they were almost as blind to Mercury's activities as the common citizens, so in order to rectify this problem, Loivissa had sought employment as a barmaid at a local Ilirean tavern that was frequented solely by the soldiers of the First Sword.

She had had to magically alter her appearance to that of a human that did not resemble her in the least. Her golden hair had been turned brown, her red eyes were now grey and all of her elven features had been removed.

It was necessary to do this to avoid the risk of being recognized by any of the soldiers, as Loivissa was sure that although no wanted posters had been put up among the public areas yet, hers was sure to be prominent among the ones that had to be there in the military quarters.

Despite all of these initial preparations, she had almost not been hired by the owner of the tavern back when she had first applied for the job four weeks ago. In the end, it had taken a quick foray into the man's mind to find the correct answers to his questions, and a small bribe from her 'benefactor', before she had been given the job.

Who could have known that the Alliance even demanded that the owner do a background check of those that wanted to work in the tavern that their soldiers were drinking in after hours? Then again, after the first week of working there, Loivissa had discovered that the reason for this was because the Alliance forces had signed a contract with the owner, which largely consisted of their soldiers being directed to only drink at his and several others' taverns in exchange for their soldiers' guaranteed security.

It was far from a dignifying job to do for her, and it was made so much worse by the tavern being located in Ilirea, just a short distance from the old Dragon Quarters, which Mercury had transformed into the holding ground for his captured dragons and dragon riders. It physically ached her to be so close and yet so far from her partner-of-heart-and-mind.

Still, she would persevere, as always, and when Mercury had finally been slain, preferably by her hand, she would reunite with her beloved Adûn and be whole once again.

"Ophelia, when are our drinks coming?", one of the many groups of soldiers called after her, using her pseudonym that she had taken during her time here.

"Coming!", Loivissa shouted back, as she waved her way through the chairs and tables with the drinks for another table, _if only Karl would hurry and get that job already, then I would be out of here at a moment's notice!_

If it was not because these inebriated soldiers let slip more information than would ever have been published, Loivissa would have never even considered agreeing to this. She did not remember from whom she had learned that the best information about an army was gathered when its soldiers did not know that they were being listened to, but it was still a perfectly viable advice nonetheless.

A few moments later, Loivissa had successfully managed to serve the table that had been shouting as well, though she had accidentally mixed up one of the orders, so that the patron got a single-malt ale instead of the mixed malt that he had ordered.

It was all well and good anyway, as he had laughed it off as a simple mistake and told her that if she joined them for a drink, it would be water under the bridge. Loivissa took a look around the tavern, and seeing no other patrons that needed her immediate attention, readily accepted without sounding too much like she had been waiting all day for an opportunity like this.

Though the group knew her well, she only knew the group superficially, as there were many soldiers that frequented the tavern, and many more that only came in once in a while. Still, she knew that this particular group was amongst those often assigned to work in tandem with the Varangian Guard, so they were often her best source of information on Mercury's activities.

"So lass, missed me?", one of them half-drunkenly asked.

"Always. Whenever you are not here, my heart skips a beat and I get this strange sense of something that I cannot describe", Loivissa answered and made a swooning gesture, before she rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"And Darren took a direct hit again. Will he never learn?", one of the others laughed, soon followed by the rest of the group.

It was important for her to keep up the charade, and the half flirtingly half teasing that she often used was very effective at integrating herself into the group. This group in particular was so used to it that she had practically become part of it already, despite her not knowing that much about its members.

"So boys, what has you all drinking this early in the afternoon? Should you not be at work?", Loivissa asked, pressing her luck, before quickly adding with a wink, "not that I mind having you all here. More tips for me that way".

The group looked warily at each other, before one of them hesitantly said, "we are not really supposed to tell anyone about it".

_Oooh, that means that it is something good!_, Loivissa cheered on the inside, but kept her appearance in check, as she hastily recognized that they would not spill the beans on this one, not yet anyway. To try and waylay their wariness at her question, she instead said, "such a shame, but I guess that it cannot be helped then".

They all seemed to visibly relax at her dropping the subject so easily, and Loivissa knew that she would have to make sure that they remained in the tavern for the rest of the night and got a whole lot drunker, so that she could find out whatever it was that they were not supposed to say.

"So, tell me Edmure, what have my dazzling little soldiers been up to since the last time you all visited? It seems like an age since then", Loivissa addressed the member of the group that seemed to have taken the most liking to her, and one of the only ones, whose names she remembered. It did not seem like the usual lust that many of her other patrons displayed, which she had always politely, or not so politely at times, declined, but she was not sure what else there was at play.

"Nothing much, just guard duty, lots and lots of guard duty", Edmure replied monotonously, as he drained a bit of his ale, "I cannot believe that we have been made to fit in for the city guard. I mean, we are members of the First Sword, so how can it be that we have to do such menial chores?"

"Hear hear", came the chorus from the rest of the group.

It is because you aided your boss in killing half of this city's guards, was what Loivissa would have liked to have said, but she wisely kept her tongue. It was best not to draw attention to herself whenever subjects like this one came up, as they might suddenly realize that they were sitting with a citizen of the lands that they had just conquered.

"I mean, I know that a lot of people died during the battle, but did this country send every single one of its capable citizens to that battle?", Edmure continued unobstructed.

"Well, you can quit anytime that you want if it becomes too menial for you to do", a dökkálfar said jokingly.

"No thank you, I like my head right where it is", Edmure spat, "though you guys still have the opportunity to terminate your contracts without such penalties".

"Narh, you would just miss us if we did", the dökkálfar laughed and clapped Edmure roughly in the back.

From what she had learned from interacting with the soldiers of the Alliance on a daily basis, Loivissa had discovered that, with the exception of some murderers and so on, all of the soldiers in the Alliance's forces had actually VOLUNTEERED to be a part of this killing machine.

Supposedly, the Alliance had not had to conscript a single soldier in almost two centuries, despite it being at war more years than not during that period. How it worked was beyond Loivissa's comprehension, as the Empire, the dwarven kingdom and the elven kingdom had all drafted soldiers amongst its populace whenever a big war had been on the horizon.

According to what she had been able to wheedle out of her brother, then contrary to popular belief, the situation had mostly been the same back when they were assembling their grand army, as the number of volunteers had not even come close to the manpower that they had deemed was necessary.

The fact that only a fraction of their STANDING army and navy had been used during the invasion of the entire Alagaësian continent further convinced Loivissa that there was no way that they could ever achieve military victory over an opponent as large as this one, as even if they had completely wiped out all forces in all of Alagaësia, then there would supposedly still be another 150.000 left of their regular army troops, and that was before considering that the Alliance could still draft more soldiers, but simply chose not to.

No, a military victory was unlikely at this point, which was why their plan of simply cutting off the head of the snake instead simply had to work.

"What is with the frown?", one of the group asked concerned, and only then did Loivissa realize that she had let her thoughts influence her facial expression. It was a grave mistake that could cost her dearly one day.

"Sorry, just wondered if your boss, the…lord commander was it?...has ever lost a war?", Loivissa tried to steer the conversation safely away from other topics, as she had found that a favoured pastime amongst all soldiers was to compare stories about their different superiors, and since Mercury was superior to them all, there were quite a few about him.

Gathering intelligence about his earlier exploits was also important, as it might give them a clue as to what he would do in the future.

"…I actually do not know the answer to that one", the one that had asked her answered, "hey, guys, anyone know of a war that the lord commander actually lost?"

"Perhaps the Third Emerald Water War?", another one butted in, before another overruled him, "no, remember that that one ended with the treaty of Oglican, not as an actual loss".

"Oh, yeah, now that you mention it", the first guy said.

Before Loivissa could get an answer to her question, she was called away to carry out the stack of orders that had piled up while she was with the group, but as she went about getting everyone what they had ordered and so on, she noticed that the group was in a heated debate.

Eventually, when she got some free time again, she returned to the group with a fresh batch of drinks, which had been spiked a bit to get them drunk sooner, as Loivissa had quickly learned that no soldier would ever complain that his drink tasted stronger than it should for fear of ridicule.

"We discussed it while you were away, and the closest thing that any of us could remember to the lord commander ever losing a war was what is now called the Tropic-North War", Edmure told her as she sat down, "it took place quite a while ago, at least two and a half centuries at least, and after losing most of his given navy in a battle at sea, the lord commander had no choice but to make a run for it".

"What happened next?", Loivissa asked, already suspecting that something had to have happened since it was not counted as an actual lost war.

"Well, the thing that you have to understand is that his enemy at the time was a major naval power that had never even heard of snow before, let alone felt its bite, so they decided to pursue what remained of his navy", another continued the story, "according to the story, the lord commander recognized this opportunity and although he had multiple opportunities to lose them during his escape, he made sure that it looked like his remaining fleet was just within reach of the enemy at all times.

The enemy naively followed him, even after he made landfall on the coast of The Northern Wastes, which for your information, is just as cold and harsh, if not more so, as the Coldharbour province north of Bedegraine".

"I can testify to that", Edmure butted in slightly more inebriated than before, and shoved his left hand, which only had four fingers left, up near Loivissa's face, "lost the fifth one during my first training exercise up there. It literally has a blizzard four months a year and it snows the remaining ones".

"Anyway", the original narrator continued as they made Edmure remove his hand, "the enemy navy chose to make landfall on the coast and follow the lord commander and his few remaining men deep into the heartland of The Northern Wastes during the middle of winter.

They were probably beyond pissed at not catching him at that point, which is really the only reason that I can think of for anyone to do that. Not even the lord commander himself makes anyone do exercises during the winter months up there.

As you might not know, the lord commander is actually also the archduke of that province, and for reasons unknown, he chose to literally build his home, or castle actually, atop a mountain in the middle of the most inhospitable place on the planet, so that was naturally where he decided to escape to when the enemy army kept following him.

Since this castle of his is built atop a mountain, there is only a small narrow road leading up to it, and even with just the usual guards there, the place would be able to repel almost any attack, which was just what happened when the enemy army finally reached the place.

According to the story, the enemy were repelled the first day, ran out of fuel to feed their fires the next day, and they all froze to death on the third day after beginning their siege. The entire crew of the world's then most powerful navy, more than 20.000 strong at the least, simply froze to death because none of the superiors understood what it meant to wage war during winter".

"They say that during the warmest of summers, the snow retreats just enough to allow you to see the thousand banners of the army, and that once upon a time, you could even see the frozen corpses, all huddled together as they tried to keep the cold out", a dökkálfar soldier added.

"Yeah, though I have never seen it myself", the narrator agreed, "but after that war, it became mandatory for all commanders and supreme commanders to participate in a wargame during the 'summer' months of The Northern Wastes at least once every decade, so as to remind them of the effects of waging war in winter".

"Fascinating", Loivissa commented in her best voice that indicated that though she had no idea of what that meant, she still wanted to make it sound as such. It was far better than revealing just how fascinated she was of the story and how much she really understood its ramifications.

"Are you goofing off here again? Get back to work, or do you think that I am paying you just to chat?", Loivissa's boss seemingly appeared behind her back without anyone's notice and scolded her.

"No, it was our fault for keeping her here", Edmure tried to excuse her, but Loivissa sent him a kind smile and apologetically said, "sorry boys, but these drinks do not serve themselves", before she left with great irritation, but without showing it.

She kept working diligently for the next two hours, while constantly making sure that none of the group's members were ever without a drink, and that the drinks were always a bit stronger than they should have been, before the first of the group managed to find an excuse to leave.

After that, they kept trailing out one by one, despite her best efforts to make them stay, until only Edmure and his dökkálfar friend remained. Loivissa's shift ended just as they too decided that it was time to leave, but with a few flowery words, combined with the promise of another round of drinks to share with her, she made them stay a bit longer.

Edmure was highly inebriated at that point, and though his friend was not exactly sober either, he was still lucid enough to keep suggesting that they get back to bed. There really was nothing that Loivissa could do to stop both of them from leaving, at least nothing that would not cause a major scene, and so she opted to instead focus her efforts on simply making Edmure stay.

It took a few promises on her part to convince Edmure's friend that he was safe in her care, and more than a bit of insinuation on her part, before she was eventually left alone with Edmure. After that, she spent the majority of the night trying to steer him back on the topic that she wanted, while also stalling the advances that he kept making towards her, but without actually putting them down.

"Did you know, hic, that my boss once had an actual PRINCE come up to his office and DEMAND that he be given back his old kingdom?", Edmure said in a slurry, "according to the story, the horse colander, no wait, the lord commander, yes that was it, told the prince that he was welcome to rule over the province, but first he had to do 10 tasks for him.

The prince accepted, and the lord commander told him that his first task was to move an entire hill by only using a pair of chopsticks. Funny thing, chopsticks, I have no idea how people in that area can eat with them. Anyway, according to the story, the prince is still going at it to this very day, or his ghost is anyway, I think.

…Or was it that the lord commander told him that he could have his kingdom back as long as he kept wearing its crown? I do not remember, but that one is a funny story too, because the lord commander had had spikes imbedded on the inside of the crown, so that no one could wear it without being in terrible pain.

It is said that after just a few minutes, the prince begged and pleaded with my bossman to remove the crown…or was it that the prince had to catch a whale with only a fishing rod and a carrot?"

"He sounds like a fascinating man", Loivissa lied through her teeth, "I would love to know what he does nowadays?"

"Huh, but he is visiting the archduke of Lav Fjäll of course", Edmure drunkenly replied, while only barely keeping himself awake at this point, "saw him and twelve of his guards leave myself a week back, but wait, I am not supposed to tell anyone about that".

"Do not worry, I will not tell anyone", Loivissa assured him, "so, if he is gone, who runs the city then?"

"His aide de camp of course", Edmure drunkenly replied, "the little vixen is capable of running any province that she wants to, but it is only until her lord returns to Ilirea in two weeks. Did you know that she always keeps a leather armour underneath all of her clothes, even the dresses? Rumour has it that she never takes it off, even in bed."

"No, but I find it fascinating to know", Loivissa encouraged him to continue, as he was a goldmine of information right now.

Unfortunately, he fell asleep not long after that, and without adding much more relevant information, but what he had revealed was of utmost importance to Loivissa, because what it represented was exactly the chance to ambush Mercury that they had all been waiting for.

Now, all she had to do was alert her fellow conspirators of this, her one chance at redemption.


	16. Ambush(ed)

I think that you are going to like this one...

* * *

**Ambush(ed)**

**Loivissa POV  
**Loivissa was crouching low on the ground, purposely keeping out of sight from the road behind a thick wall of foliage. Next to her, more than three dozen others were similarly crouched, all waiting with baited breath for their quarry to pass by.

With the exceptions of Aaron and Nari, Loivissa did not know the names of any of the others that waited beside her. They were all from various human villages, which they had managed to convince to join them in taking revenge on the one responsible for the deaths of many of their fellow villagers, whom had often been family members or close friends of those that were here today.

Since this entire ambush had been fairly rushed, the core members of Aiedail had not even been able to all come together to join in on it. Vanir had still been deep inside the Spine when Loivissa had scried him the night that she had first learnt of Mercury's trip, and to avoid suspicion, only Aaron had been allowed to make the trip on horseback from the Stronghammer family.

Luckily for them, there had been no major lethrblaka patrols between Aiedail's only two dragon riders and where they had set up the ambush, so both of them had been able to quickly cover the distance and recruit the villagers on their way.

Loivissa had had to leave her undercover work that very same night, which unfortunately meant that she could not go back to it anymore. Before she had left, she had dropped Edmure off in the custody of the guards of the military quarters.

After taking responsibility for the man in front of witnesses, she felt that she had to make sure that he got home safely, as anything else might lead to an investigation into what had happened that night, which might compromise today's ambush.

Another smaller part of it was that no matter how much she detested the man's job, she had, during her time spent amongst them, learned that they were not actually bad people, and that it was not actually them that her anger should be with, but their boss; the traitorous manipulative backstabbing spawn of insects.

Yes, if only Mercury would just curl up and die, then the world would be able to come out from under his shadow and enjoy peace and quiet for once. The only problem was that Mercury was not likely to go die in a hole by his own free will, so they had to make sure that it happened.

…Which brought her thoughts back to her current situation; waiting for his party to arrive.

The weather was horrible, with grey skies blocking out the sun and a slow steady rain dripping down just enough for it to constantly be noticeable, but not so much that it actually poured down. It was the sort of rain that could continue on for days without ever stopping for long.

Loivissa much preferred the shorter heavier downpour, where it rained properly for a few hours and then stopped, instead of this dreary weather, but there was nothing that she could do about it anyway. It was the middle of autumn after all, so this kind of weather was to be expected.

An ache in her left thigh made her shift to allow blood to flow to the area once again. The long hours of crouching were finally having their effect on her stiff wet limbs, and she knew that the situation was not much better for the ones beside her.

They could not risk lighting a fire for fear of being discovered, so everyone simply had to make do without, which put them all in a rather grumpy mood. Oaths and curses were already being thrown left and right, as well as more than a few exclamations about whether they even ought to stay here when all they had to do was eat hard mouldy bread and shutter as the wind stole what warmth was left in their limbs.

Justice, it seemed, was something that commoners could only be depended upon to carry out when it was convenient and comfortable for them to do so.

"Are you sure that he will even come this way?", one of the villagers grumbled for the umpteenth time.

"Yes, our informants spotted him yesterday, and this is the only road leading from where he was and towards Ilirea", Loivissa answered sourly, "the rain has probably just delayed him a bit".

In truth, she was beginning to fear that he had chosen to seek shelter for the rain amongst one of the inns on the way. If he had, then it was questionable if they would be able to keep the villagers together until he did arrive. They had not exactly prepared for a long wait.

At that moment, she felt a mind approach her own, but she quickly recognized it as her brother's and let him in.

_How are things going on your end?_, he asked her concerned.

_We are wet, hungry and cold, and I fear that if he does not show up soon, then there might be dissent amongst the villagers_, she answered him honestly.

_But we need them for the plan to work_, Evandar argued, _make sure that they do not leave_.

_I know, and I am trying to make sure of that_, Loivissa responded wryly, _how are you doing?_

_Slightly better than you, it seems_, Evandar responded, _Delvaria and Augms are keeping us warm and dry, but they are anxious and twitchy after waiting in anticipation for so long_.

A flash of lightning drew Loivissa's eyes towards it, and after a few seconds, the roar of thunder reverberated through the air. It was not a good sign.

_Be careful when you take to the air_, she warned her brother.

_Thank you, we will_, he answered understandingly, _but it looked to still be a fair bit away, so I do not think that we need to concern ourselves with it just yet_.

Evandar, Delvaria, Dweyrn and Augms were all huddled together behind a hill some distance away, where they awaited the signal from Loivissa to finally reveal their presence. If one from Mercury's company discovered the dragons too early, then they would no doubt turn around at once, not to mention that even if they did not, then they would still have time to overcome the shock and prepare a counter.

Loivissa would have normally not considered that it would take two dragon riders and three dozen soldiers on foot to take down twelve men on horseback and their leader, and certainly not that they needed the element of surprise for it to work, but this was not just any enemy that they were about to ambush.

This enemy had already shown that he knew how to deal with dragons, and if even a fraction of the stories that she had heard during her time as a barmaid were true, then the twelve men that were with him were not exactly slouches either.

Many members of the Varangian Guard had had nicknames given to them by the regular soldiers that had served with them, and some of the nicknames were apparently so commonly known that you could ask any lord or lady half-way around the world if he or she knew it, and they would all answer yes.

There were stories of Dagmar the Kingslayer, who was famous for having slain three would-be kings during his time in the Varangian Guard. Garen the Cunning, a man whom had supposedly once gotten captured by the enemy army, and when the rest of Mercury's army finally arrived to free him, or avenge his death, details were a bit sketchy on that part, he had already managed to start a civil war amongst the factions of the enemy army. According to the story, Mercury had found him still locked inside a wooden cell, languidly chuckling as his captors fought both each other and Mercury's army.

Then there was the commander of the Guard, Elladan the Absolute. His absolute devotion to his lord was only challenged by the absolute results that he demanded from his men. It was said that the man's only conflicting interest with accepting orders was when they involved the endangerment of his lord.

Generations upon generations of stories and heroes just like these had given the Varangian Guard a fearsome reputation, and the regular soldiers practically worshipped the ground that they walked on. The fact that many of the stories were likely exaggerations or outright lies never seemed to cross their minds, and it was only due to an old memory from a long time ago that Loivissa knew not to put too much stock into the stories.

No, the far more likely image of the Varangian Guard was one of warriors trained to be superbly powerful swords and shields for Mercury to toy with, as well as conditioned to be completely devoid of any questions as to whether what they were doing, and whom they were serving, was right and honourable.

Not that anyone knew how exactly the Varangian Guard had been trained, as anyone that she had talked to, whom had ever tried out to be one and subsequently been rejected, had apparently been rendered silent with the magically binding contracts that the Alliance seemed to be so fond of.

Though Loivissa was not much for admitting it, the contracts were actually rather smart, even though they were apparently so expensive to make that they were reserved for special occasions. They worked kind of like a vow in the Ancient language, except that all you had to do was to sign the contract, instead of having to say the words. In its essence, Loivissa's understanding of the system revolved around the signing of the contract somehow corresponding with your statement that what was written on the contract was the truth.

The one copy of such a contract that they had managed to get their hands on, which was nothing more than a transcript of the original, had been filled with dozens upon dozens of escape clauses for both parties, which were supposedly designed to provide the opportunities for both parties to back out of their promises if certain conditions were met.

A dull sound broke her thoughts. It was small and not very clear because of the rain, but it was still there nonetheless.

Thud, thud, thud, it went over and over again in a timely rhythm, only broken by the occasional plop. Loivissa recognized it as the trampling of hooves, and sure enough, a neigh was soon heard above the clatter of the rain.

"Finally", she grumbled as she turned her attention towards the direction of the sound.

Down the road, roughly 100-150 metres ahead, she was able to distinguish the shapes of several horses with riders atop, which rode in a two-row column formation. Only then did she realize that except for Nari, none of the others had the elven senses needed to spot or hear the creatures at this distance and in this weather.

"Get ready, they are coming", Loivissa informed her human allies, which set in motion a whole slew of activity, before she gave the same message to her brother.

Even though the rain slowed down the speed of the horsemen, Loivissa's men only had about one or two minutes to get everything ready before they passed their hiding spot, which was why everyone had been forced to constantly be ready to spring into action.

Bows were quickly strung, arrows nocked and whatever food people might have been chewing on was either thrown to the ground or wolfed down. Loivissa herself was ready just 10 seconds after she had warned the others.

As the horsemen drew nearer, she was able to get a better look at both the beasts and their riders. The horses all looked higher than the regular horses in Alagaësia, indicating that they might have been from a foreign breed, and you could see the powerful muscles bulging underneath the skin every time one moved.

The horsemen on the other hand did not initially look like much, which worried Loivissa slightly, as they might mistake yet another group of travellers for their real quarry, but a quick headcount told her that there were thirteen riders in all, which was exactly the number that they had been expecting to come upon.

The horsemen were all dressed exactly the same, with green cloaks, which were soaking wet from the rain, draped over their shoulders and with the hoods up, along with what looked to be a black leather vest and a pair of green woolly trousers.

It was not until they were only 20-30 metres away that Loivissa saw a glint of steel from underneath the plain travelling clothes because of another lightning strike, which told her that though they tried to look like regular travellers, they were really fully armoured soldiers.

Another inspection revealed that what she had initially thought to be strange poles of some kind that had been fastened to each of their saddles, which she had initially guessed to be tent poles, were actually lances.

There was no longer any doubt in her mind that these were her quarry, and though it bugged her that there were no visible signs as to which one of them was their leader, not to mention that they had not expected for the group to be this armed when they had planned their ambush, it did not deter Loivissa from silently signalling for her men to ready their arrows.

_He might be the solitary figure leading the column, but that one could also be a decoy meant to fool us_, Loivissa mused as they anxiously waited for the riders to pass the stretch of road in front of their hiding spot, _then again, they are not expecting a fight, so perhaps he really is leading them? But then again, they might have just taken the precaution out of principle…unless they knew that we would reach that conclusion as well_.

This was why she hated guessing what Mercury had and had not planned for, as it ultimately always came down to a case of whether he knew that she knew that he knew that she knew that he had initially planned this or that.

It would not matter right now though, as everyone in the column had to die during this ambush, but she had hoped that she might have singled him out and thereby increased the odds of it being her that dealt the final blow.

Loivissa quickly banished the thought from her head. It was not becoming of her to think like that. Instead of dwelling on these thoughts, she cast a nervous glance trough sloppy wet golden bangs at the villagers on both of her sides.

Their bows were nothing more than regular human hunting bows, but the arrows nocked on their strings would pierce flesh just as well as any other arrow. The men holding the bows looked just as anxious as Loivissa felt, but unlike them, she could not allow her anxiety to show.

_How can it feel like the time is moving incredibly fast and incredibly slow at the same time?_, Loivissa mused, as she watched how the riders slowly made their way forward, _if only Adûn was here, then he would know just what to say_.

It was far from the first time that she had wanted to just run to Adûn and not give a damn about everything else, but she had learned to withstand the urge. It helped if she avoided thinking of him, but whenever she did, she always felt guilty afterwards, like she had just committed an unspeakable crime.

The sound of laughter tore her away from her morbid thoughts, and upon closer inspection, it turned out that the sound originated from the group of horsemen. Perhaps one of them had said something funny. Loivissa would make sure that that was the last time that any of them ever laughed.

"Fire", she ordered, and within a few moments, three dozen twangs reverberated through the air as the arrows were released.

None of the arrows were aimed at the riders, or were at least not supposed to be aimed at the riders, as it had been made abundantly clear that each of them had a comprehensive set of wards that would make the arrows deflect without doing anything other than ruining their moment of surprise.

Instead, the arrows were all supposed to be aimed at the horses underneath the riders, as it was far less likely that any of them had bothered to put wards around the horses, and a horse struck by an arrow could easily run wild and throw its rider off, where he might die, or at least be incapacitated, by hitting the ground at an odd angle.

To their dismay, all of the arrows were deflected by invisible wards and harmlessly hit the ground before the horsemen with a series of thuds, but all was not lost yet, as Loivissa had already signalled her brother to begin the second stage of the ambush. They had after all not counted on every single one of the riders to succumb during the first volley.

The collective roars of two majestic dragons broke the air immediately before said two dragons and their riders rose up from behind a hill on the other side of the road from where Loivissa and her group was camped.

The two dragons, one a dull brown and the other a vibrant gold, flew almost in perfect tandem as they split up and circled round to approach the column of horsemen from both behind and in front, where they let loose two torrents that bathed the entire column in flames.

Not wanting to waste any time, Loivissa ordered her men to pick up their prepared melee weapons and charge forward with her to either make sure that the charred corpses really were dead, or to finish them off in their confusion.

Most of the villagers' weapons were axes meant for chopping wood and other farm equipment that had been quickly converted to serve as a weapon, as there had been no time for Loivissa and the rest of the members of Aiedail to properly equip them.

Loivissa carried the sword that she had picked up in Nolondil, along with a chainmail and a green cloak, while Nari carried his two-handed elven sword and Aaron had brought his family's old warhammer, which was a family heirloom meant to pass to the oldest son when he came of age, along with a wooden shield with a steel edge and cone in the middle. The warhammer had for reasons that Loivissa did not know, not actually been carried when the then oldest son, Evan, had gone to war and his untimely death.

The two dragons had almost finished their pass on the horsemen when a figure suddenly shot up and out of the oval ball of flames. The figure wore nothing but what any of the other riders had worn, but he did carry one of the big lances, which was easily longer than he was tall, outstretched in only one hand.

The figure stopped in mid-air for a moment, where it seemed to make a hand-wave of some sort, and in the very next moment, the entire ball of flames dissipated like a candle that had just been blown out.

That solitary act proved to Loivissa that the figure floating in mid-air was the real target of her ire, but his display of power was not something that she could immediately explain, as according to their understanding of the archmage-system and their three rings of power, along with information from their various sources, Mercury was not supposed to be wearing a ring of power on this trip.

His customary signet ring was still supposed to be locked up in Ilirea, which was part of why they had even dared to attempt this ambush, so how had he just performed such an act with relative ease? The answer to that question would have to wait, as Loivissa had far greater troubles coming her way. Literally.

The moment that the flames dissipated, the remaining twelve horsemen charged directly towards Loivissa's men's charge with their long lances at the ready and in an uncannily almost perfect wedge formation. Loivissa stole one last glance at Mercury's form in the air, which had sped up by then and had started actually chasing after one of the dragons, before she turned her attention down towards the threat on the ground.

It was too late for her to do anything but watch as the charging horsemen rode directly through the left flank of villagers like they were nothing but leaves on their way, and all without taking any casualties or suffering any damage to either themselves or their horses.

The riders gave them no time to breathe or regroup, as they all turned around and ploughed through the right flank as well, leaving a little under a dozen more dead and severely wounded in their wake, and still without suffering any damage themselves.

It was quickly turning into a slaughter as villagers were ridden down left and right without even the slightest bit of chance of defending themselves. As one being, Aaron and Nari led a charge to stop the carnage, while Loivissa tried to rally the wavering remains of the villagers.

Both Nari and Aaron had a comprehensive set of wards, Loivissa had set Aaron's herself, so they did not have to fear the tips of the lances for the first while, though they still had to watch out for being ridden down, as Loivissa had not thought of that possibility when she had set them up.

It was with this in mind that she watched how this two-man charge ran directly towards the full frontal charge of four horsemen, as the riders has split into three groups at this point to better mow down the scattered villagers.

It was almost as in slow-motion that she saw the two groups meet. Aaron and Nari were both so confident in their respective wards that they chose to forgo manually blocking the first strike in favour of positioning themselves to deal fatal blows after the lances had deflected off of their wards.

Lightning chose to strike at that moment, which made one of the lances of the other riders, which had a slightly broken tip, give off a purple glint, and in that moment, when it was far too late for her to warn her fellows of the imminent danger, Loivissa understood that the tips of each of the lances had one the small amethysts, which through dark magic negated all magic in a small area around them, at their cores.

The amethysts were likely too small to affect the wards of the riders that carried the lances, but they would no doubt pierce any ward directly in front of them, which was exactly what happened next. In a sense, Aaron was really the lucky one of the two, as his blow to the chest managed to kill him instantly, which Loivissa could feel by her wards being released, but Nari on the other hand 'only' suffered a major wound to his lower abdomen, before he was ridden down by the horses of the riders.

Loivissa could still hear his wheezed breathing from where she stood frozen to the ground, but just as it seemed like their ground force would be completely decimated without ever accomplishing anything, it got worse.

The wail of a dragon, which Loivissa quickly recognized as Delvaria's, tore through the air, and in her daze, Loivissa could not help but look up, despite knowing that she might be ridden down in the next moment.

Up there, hanging onto the very throat of Delvaria, was the tiny form of Mercury, whom still carried the enormous lance in his right hand. Loivissa knew that none of her brother's wards defended against an opponent clinging on to his beloved dragon, as it would cause more problems in regards to riding her than it would protect her from, but to actually see someone manage to hold onto a thrashing dragon in flight was another thing entirely.

After seemingly having almost lost his grip during a wild series of turns only moments before, Mercury now had the time and relative peace to viciously plunge the heavy lance directly into the throat of Delvaria repeatedly, which elicited more yelps and wails from the thrashing dragon.

Each of the thrusts were no doubt life-threatening to Delvaria, but Mercury seemed to not want to stop slamming the increasingly bloodied lance into the dragon's gaping throat until it stopped moving on its own entirely.

That exact thing happened only a fraction of a second later, as Evandar's soul-shattering screams replaced his beloved dragon's wails and both of them began to plummet towards the ground. The figure of Mercury released his grip and continued to float in mid-air as the pair plummeted towards the earth, and either through an act of his own or some much needed luck on their part, Evandar was thrown from the saddle and into his own fall, but it did not seem like he had any intention of stopping his fall.

_No, I will not let him die!_, Loivissa screamed inside of her head as she took off with her full elven speed in direction of where her brother was falling, still half-wondering how she had not been ridden down yet.

She crossed the plains very quickly, and when she was within reasonable reach, she let her magic flow through her and uttered the words that would slow her brother's fall. Doing so, and especially at this distance, took a heavy toll on her energy reserves, which made her once again wonder how Mercury managed to keep floating, but she ignored the inquiry, as she focused her efforts on guiding her brother's form down into her outstretched arms.

_Augms, pick us up immediately_, she contacted the brown dragon directly, which she knew to technically be rude to do without the rider's permission, but it was an emergency.

_What about the others?_, Dweyrn questioned, though they still did as Loivissa had ordered.

_The battle is lost, there is nothing we can do for them anymore_, Loivissa replied sadly but sternly, letting the younger rider know that there would be no discussion on that subject.

It pained her to know that they likely still could save many of the villagers, and also Nari, if they could get them treated immediately, but trying to save anyone else at this point would be akin to suicide, so they simply had to cut their losses and accept that luck had not been on their side today.

"No, we are not leaving! I want to go back and finish off that bastard! You hear me, Mercury the Traitorous? I will kill you!", her brother screamed, thrashed and even clawed at Loivissa to get out of her hold, so she had to knock him out and hold his limb form in her arms while they waited in what seemed like hours, but which was more likely seconds, for Augms to get them.

The bloodbath behind them was finally coming to an end, though not a happy end for any of the villagers that had agreed to come with them, and Loivissa had to restrain herself when she saw Mercury casually landing in front of where Nari and Aaron still lay.

Nari was still alive at this point, as could be seen by him weakly raising his right arm towards Mercury, but whether he had intended to give a last parting shot of magic or had tried to plead for mercy, Loivissa would never know, as Mercury swiftly and brutally outstretched his own right arm towards Nari's downed form, with his palm open, as if to offer him a hand, before he swiftly balled it into a fist. Nari's arm went limb immediately after that.

In the next moment, just as the murderer turned to stare in their direction, Augms swooped down and caught both Loivissa's and Evandar's forms in his claws, before quickly taking off in the opposite direction of the man that had just single-handedly taken down a dragon.

* * *

...And Mercury was clearly not done killing yet. Anyone else feel like running?

_ But now the rains weep o'er his hall, _

_ with no one there to hear. _

_ Yes now the rains weep o'er his hall, _

_ and not a soul to hear._


	17. A feast of shattered hopes

Hey, happy Mammoth Monday(though not for some of my characters, since they, well, took some damage in the previous chapter...)

* * *

**A feast of shattered hopes**

**Loivissa POV  
**The current situation was precarious to say the least. Ever since the failed ambush two weeks ago, Aiedail's situation had kept changing from bad to worse to horrible far too fast for Loivissa to counter all but the worst effects.

At the moment, all of the surviving members that were left of Aiedail had gathered in their new headquarters, which Evandar and Dweyrn had discovered shortly before Loivissa had told them about the ambush opportunity.

It was an old fort hidden deep within the southern half of the Spine, in the spot roughly halfway between Kuasta and the upper tip of Leona Lake. It was far enough out of the way from any roads and towns that you would never come across it unless you knew exactly where it was, which made it perfect for their new HQ.

All but a few of the rooms were decrepit and overgrown with weeds, and only a handful of the furniture was still even usable, but with a fair amount of work, this place might just become liveable.

Still, the miserable state of their headquarters was a concern for later, if there even would be a later for Aiedail as a group. It was far from certain that they would keep going after the disastrous ambush attempt, which was actually the primary reason for all of them gathering here in person today; to discuss whether they should throw in the towel and abolish Aiedail, or keep fighting to whatever fate had in store for them.

"No one needs to be told how dire the situation is, I presume?", Loivissa started the meeting off by saying.

Around the old mouldy table, which was the only usable one left in the entire fort, the faces of her remaining fellow members fell into grimaces at the reminder. No one spoke a word, not even a grunt of confirmation was heard.

_It is worse than I thought_, Loivissa realized, as she studied each of them, _most of them looks like they have already given up. I cannot allow this to continue_.

"Despite of our recent…setback…our cause is still as important as ever, and it is even more important that we not give up now, when so many others have-", Loivissa started to say, before she was interrupted.

"By 'recent setback', do you mean how all of our allies have left us, like rats clamouring to get off a sinking ship?", Dweyrn questioned sourly, "or perhaps how we lost a third of our core members during that butchery of a battle?"

What the female dragon rider said was true, as word had quickly spread from village to village of how anyone that aided them ended up dead, or worse, and so, virtually all of the tentative alliances that they had formed before had been dissolved.

Nari's death had also meant the loss of their communications with the elven group, and since the elves had not tried to re-establish it yet, Loivissa had clearly gotten the message that that alliance was well and over with as well.

"I admit that things are looking rather bleak at the moment", Loivissa admitted, "but one defeat is not the equivalent of a lost war. We can still win this one".

"He took out a dragon! On his own! A mere twelve of his bodyguards mowed over all of our ground forces, including my brother and Nari!", Garth exclaimed, "how in all of Alagaësia are we supposed to beat that?!"

"So are we supposed to just give up because our enemy managed to outfight this once?", Loivissa argued, "doing so would be beyond disrespectful to those that have already died. We must succeed, or else their deaths will have been for nothing".

"She is right, son, we have already given up too much to quit now", Earl Karl finally seemed to come around, and she knew that Garth would follow his father's wishes.

Loivissa sent a thankful and sympathetic look towards the earl. As if it was not enough that he had lost two sons to Mercury within half a year, he had also had to publically disown Aaron shortly after the ambush fiasco.

The reason for the disownment was to avoid having the rest of his family charged with treason for the attempted killing of Mercury and his guards, as Aaron's body had after all been left behind when they had fled the slaughter.

The cover-story behind the disownment was that Aaron had run off with a harlot and had taken several family heirlooms with him, including the Stronghammer ancestral weapon. The Stronghammer family truly had given up more than most in the pursuit of their common goal, but they were nonetheless committed to continue on. Now she just needed to convince the rest of them.

"Vanir", she said and directed her gaze solely upon the elf, "what do you think Blödhgarm would have done in your stead? Would he have given up on his duty when it seemed hard, or would he have kept doing what he had to until the very end?"

"…He would, and did, continue to do his duty no matter the circumstances", Vanir answered with a glint in his eyes that spoke of sadness, "…and so will I. **My sword is at your disposal, now and forever, Lady Loivissa**".

It might have been a bit too manipulative for Loivissa's taste to use Vanir's obvious survivor's guilt to her advantage, but she needed him on their side if she were to have any hopes of re-establishing connections with their former elven allies, whose resources, influence and information were desperately needed.

There were after all limits to how much of his treasury that Earl Karl could afford to spend before people began asking questions as to where the money went, let alone before he started bankrupting himself.

"Thank you, Vanir", Loivissa gratefully said with a nod in his direction, "then now that we are all in agreement that we should continue-"

"Hold on", Dweyrn interrupted again, "neither I, nor Augms, ever agreed that this was the best course of action".

"No, you did not, but I assumed that since you chose to come back to us, you also wanted to continue fighting for what is true and good, instead of cowering in a hole like so many others", Loivissa told her sternly.

It was a little known fact to the rest of the group, but after dropping Loivissa and Evandar off shortly after the ambush, Dweyrn and Augms had taken off without another word as to where they were going or whether they were intending to come back again.

It had been almost a week and a half before Loivissa had finally heard from the pair again, and just like what had happened when they had fled Estildirin, the pair had refused to say a single word as to where they had been or what they had done.

At the time, Loivissa had ascribed their behaviour to the fact that the slaughter of the ambush had to have reminded the pair of the slaughter that they had witnessed in Estildirin, and they had therefore needed some time alone to distance themselves from the event before they could resume their duties.

Now however, Loivissa was questioning whether enough time had passed for the two to fully recover from the experience of losing close friends right in front of their eyes yet again. Still, even if the pair was traumatized, she could not allow them to leave. She needed their last remaining intact dragon rider pair.

"…We had not fully decided what to do before this meeting, but we have now", Dweyrn said with a grave voice, as if she was announcing her own death sentence, "we will stay".

"Good, then everyone is agreed that we must continue on for the memory of those that have fallen", Loivissa tried to say again, but she was yet again cut off, though this time, it was not by Dweyrn.

"But Evandar is still not in attendance?", Earl Karl pointed out the fact that her brother was not among the ones seated at the table, "should we be making decisions without his consent? He is after all still our leader".

"My brother gave me his permission to act in his stead while he is away on other business", Loivissa lied to ease their worries, "he told me that he trusted my judgement".

The lie seemed to ease the concerns of those at the table, as it was supposed to. It was best that they did not know that Evandar had become so depressed after losing Adûn that he would no longer leave his room, and he was not in any state of mind to issue any kind of orders at the moment. The heavy drinking certainly did not help either.

Loivissa had initially feared that he would try to follow his dragon into the void, but with a breath that was foul with the stench of liqueur, he had grimly laughed that he could not, as he had made a vow in the Ancient language to free Alagaësia from Mercury, no matter what it took.

It had been her only comfort to know that at least he would not leave her alone as well, and so, she had locked the door to his room from the outside and had placed a ward of concealment over it to prevent anyone on the outside from learning what was happening on the inside, both by mundane and arcane means.

He would come around eventually, hopefully, and when he did, he would thank her for having taken care of Aiedail's affairs and kept it as intact as possible in his absence.

"Are there any other concerns that needs to be addressed before we continue?", Loivissa asked around the table, not wanting to be interrupted a third time, before she finally got to finish her sentence, "then, now that we are all in agreement that we cannot allow the butcher to get away with everything that he has done, we will begin planning for how to beat him the next time".

"Again, how are we supposed to beat that thing after he wiped the floor with us, even when we had the moment of surprise on our side and outnumbered his guards three to one?", Garth voiced his argument again.

"Anyone can be killed", Loivissa said with emphasis, "Mercury has not even shown a fraction of the power that Galbatorix possessed at the time of his death, and like Galbatorix, the means to killing him might not be obvious to all, but all it takes is some work to find it".

She deliberately left out that part of the mad king's demise could be contributed to their current enemy, as it was best not to remind them of that.

"Until we have acquired the means to finally kill the usurper, we will remain hidden in the shadows", Loivissa continued, "for now, all we will do is continue to rebuild what we have lost and gather intelligence about our enemy. Everyone, with the exception of Earl Karl, is to avoid any and all contact with Mercury and his guards at all costs. The next time we engage him again, Mercury is to not even know that we were there until we are already gone".

"Why was I made an exemption?", Earl Karl asked confused.

"You must continue trying to infiltrate the court in Ilirea", Loivissa answered, "changing plans so soon after your son was killed as a renegade would indicate that you were an accomplice to his plans".

"But would sending father to Ilirea not be like sending the lamb into the lion's den?", Garth objected concerned.

"I admit that it is not without risks, but we need to know what is going on if we are to succeed", Loivissa argued, "besides, if Mercury wanted your father's head, do you really think that hiding behind the walls of Stronghammer Keep would be enough to stop him? No, your family's best defence is to act like there is nothing wrong".

"I understand", Earl Karl nodded his head with a grave expression, like a man going to face his executioner.

"Remember that no matter what, you must not show how much you despise him openly. He will test you when you get there, and you have to pass that test, both for your own and your family's sake", Loivissa warned the earl, before she turned to Vanir, "and in the meantime, I want you to try and restore relations with Nari's group. Use whatever means that you deem necessary to accomplish that goal".

"Your wish is my command, my lady", Vanir said and dipped his head.

"Good, then Garth, you are to return to Carvahall with your father and stay there. For the moment, you will not be involved in any of our further activities", Loivissa ordered him, but before he could protest, she said, "this is not done as a punishment, but because your family already looks suspicious enough as it is, and the only son and heir sneaking off in secret every now and then will quickly have people beginning to gossip about it".

As Loivissa continued to outline the assignments of everyone, she could not help but think, _Aiedail is safe from fracturing from within…for now._

**Mercury POV  
**Mercury bent down and chastely kissed the bride's hand, as he said, "allow me to be the first to congratulate you on this joyous occasion".

Across from him, Ilumëo rolled her eyes at his antics, as she sarcastically replied, "thank you, it means so much to the both of us that you were able to find the time to come here".

"Well, normally I would not have, but my aide de camp nagged me that I had to go", Mercury joked, before he turned his attention towards the groom, "she can be rather persistent when she wants to, but I suppose that it is too late to warn you of that".

"Uhhh, I suppose that it is", the groom, a dökkálfar member of Mercury's Varangian Guard, said ineloquently. He still had not figured out how he should act around Mercury, now that he was married to his aide de camp, and Mercury enjoyed toying with his uncertainty.

"If you keep tormenting my husband, I might just invite your wife to the Child-Party", Ilumëo threatened jokingly.

"Alright, I will leave you to receive the other guests then", Mercury relented, but before he made way for the rest of the well-wishers, he said, "enjoy my wedding gifts".

For their wedding, Mercury had given Ilumëo a finely crafted green dress made of elven lámarae that had rubies imbedded along the neckline and silvery threads flowing down from the back of the neckline and to the hem of the dress, which, while in motion, would make it look like there were two layers atop of one another in the back.

For Kolrka, as the groom was named, Mercury had given him a dragon rider sword that he had had modified to fit Kolrka's hand and fighting style. It was a green one, emerald actually, with an emerald imbedded in the pommel and a two-handed grip with a wide blade that was blunt and rounded at the end. There had also been engravings adorned upon the cross-guard, but Mercury had had them removed.

As he walked along the banquet, which held many delicacies from both the local cuisine and from abroad, Mercury snagged a glass of bourbon with a few ice-cubes in it from a waiter, before he moved on to the main hall and dancing floor.

A band was playing on gilded instruments, to the great amusement of the many couples that danced to their tune. Dancing held no interest to Mercury any longer, having long since lost any interest in it since his partners always ended up dead or worse, so he barely spared them a glance before moving on.

Still, it was a far more pleasing scenery than what he had experienced just a few weeks ago. Who could have known that dragon blood was so much harder to get out of your clothes than ordinary human blood? The killing of Delvaria did however bring Mercury full circle in having killed at least one of every sentient species on the planet.

To be honest, Mercury had been quite surprised by the ambush, as he had thought that no human villagers would have dared to go against him so soon after what he had done to the grand army, and he absolutely loathed how he had had to actually INTERVENE in order to not screw up his future plans.

It was always a risk whenever he drew upon the power of It, which was why he generally preferred to plan and counter his way out of overcoming odds that were stacked against him, but they had forced his hand during that rainy day, and now it would happen sooner than Mercury would have liked.

After the battle, Mercury had had the bodies searched and had then burned them all, but he had not made an example of them. In fact, he had told every one of his Varangian guards that if they were ever asked, then they knew nothing of any ambush.

It was much easier to deny something when he had not lost any men to it, not that it would have been particularly difficult to deny it if he had, but it was always so much easier to do when he had not.

His reasoning for denying that there had even been a battle was simply because it did not serve in his best interests to officially say that it had happened. If he had made an announcement about it when he had returned to Ilirea, then Loivissa's group, Aiedail, would have gained a fair amount of publicity, and with publicity came varying degrees of public support, but if he said that it had never even happened, then the amount of publicity would decrease drastically.

Word of what had happened would still spread, as it in fact already had, but that would be from mouth to mouth, and if there was one thing that Mercury knew about unconfirmed gossip, then it was that everything got exaggerated over time, and the more exaggerated the story got, the less people there were that were inclined to line up to rebel against him.

After all, when there were no casualties amongst his own guards, then there was only one direction that it could exaggerate into, and according to the latest rumour, Mercury was now up on killing not only two dragons on his own, but also levelling an entire infantry division of 100 men, while his guards each were supposed to have cut out the hearts of 10 enemies.

Still, what Mercury needed for the next while, until the next phase of his plan was ready, was not for his subjects to live in fear, but simply for them to live their normal everyday lives. As long as they kept doing that, then Mercury would have the peace and quiet to actually begin stabilizing this country.

_Well, at least I removed a few pawns from the game_, Mercury mused, _and I got confirmation that the Stronghammer clan are conspiring against me_.

The body of the second eldest son of the Stronghammer clan had been discovered as one of the corpses, but the earl of Carvahall had been quick in disowning said son shortly after the battle, so even if Mercury had not denied that the ambush had taken place, which made it impossible to charge anyone for a treasonous act that had supposedly never happened, then he still would not have been able to charge the earl for aiding the conspiracy.

And to top it all off, the earl had continued trying to get a place at court even after the incident. Mercury had given the go ahead to give him one only yesterday; mainly because it would be amusing to have the earl having to cooperate with enacting legislations that he was clearly against.

_It will certainly be entertaining to see how he copes with having to keep up the act and enact all of his duties to the best of his abilities, so as to not arouse suspicion, _Mercury mused with a faint smile tugging at his lips, _well, it will hardly be the first person that I have working for me which wants me dead. Yet, somehow, they always seem to produce such good results during the time that they are not conspiring to kill me_.

Mercury was not overly fond of killing each and every one of his enemies, as it would have left him with quite a few empty governments and generally seemed to attract more disapproval from the local populace than it solved, and as long as he could get them to keep doing their jobs, then he really could not care less about them wishing him dead and gone.

Speaking of which, Atanalcar had been strangely quiet ever since he got that seat in the Tribunal. It was not like the man could actually do anything to hurt him, as Mercury still possessed the solid evidence that linked him to a crime worthy of quite a bit of jail-time, but Mercury was still against the betrayal of their agreement on pure principle, especially now that Atanalcar had finally become so incredibly useful.

Still, his wild and ambitious nature was one of the primary attributes that Mercury actually liked about the man, as it was always so enjoyable to find ways to counter or tame them, so he supposed that he could give the man some leash for now.

Speaking of which, Ilumëo had said that Mercury's mandatory two-year psychiatric check was coming up soon. It was a requirement for all commanders and above that they undergo a psychiatric check by a certified member of the Psychological Order in order to make sure that none of them went completely crazy.

The Psychological Order was an association of people that studied the human mind, which Mercury had founded a long time ago under a pseudonym, and though it was almost exclusively used by the military for various purposes, their services could also be hired privately if you had the necessary funds.

Mercury wondered what his new psychiatrist would be like, seeing as how his previous one had realized during their last interview that he had gotten into the field because he had a subconscious wish to patch things up with his father, and he had subsequently left the order to do just that.

His decision may or may not have been influenced by something that Mercury had said during the course of the interviews that they had had over the years. Toying with the minds of people trained to understand the mind was always so much more challenging, and therefore more enjoyable, than simply doing it with someone easily manipulated.

"Scheming already? My daughter has not even been wed for half an hour yet", a familiar voice said from behind him, and when Mercury turned around, it was to see his old aide de camp, Arucane, who was also the mother of his current one, standing with a nostalgic smile on her heavily wrinkled face.

"Nope, just thought about my upcoming psychiatric interview", Mercury revealed, as this woman was one of the two people that he actually trusted entirely in this entire world.

"I already feel bad for the poor sod that took the job", she said, "it has to be a new one, considering that all of the veterans know better than taking your case, and the new ones are the only ones that just see the opportunity that it might bring".

"It probably is", Mercury agreed with a shrug, "so, was your trip satisfactory?"

"A month and a half at sea just to get here, and then this is all that they wanted for a wedding", she huffed, "in my day, the Uluth weddings were talked about for decades afterwards".

"I did tell your daughter that she could have anything that she wanted for her wedding, and this was what she wanted", Mercury shrugged, "though I think that you will be pleased to know that your first grandchild will be sent to you in about half a year, so you have that to look forward to".

"Hrmph, I thought that she looked a little puffed out, but it was about time that I got some", Arucane said, "it is not like my other two boys are going to get me any for a while, what with both of them being too busy playing respectively sailor and experimental scholar", she then turned her head and raised her voice, as she said, "though it is not like my sister's kids are doing any better".

"Nice to see you too, aunt", Datia, Ilumëo's cousin and the leader of the Grey Organization said as she joined them, "and for your information, I have been plenty busy here in Albion to even consider such things".

"Yes, I actually meant to discuss that with you", Mercury cut in, "you see, the Grey Organization has outlived its usefulness and are now causing more trouble than it is solving, so I want you to dismantle it".

"Any preferences, or do I get to use whatever resources that I deem necessary?", Datia asked with a vicious gleam in her eyes. Everyone close to her knew that she was quite dangerous if she was allowed to do things entirely in her own way.

The primary reason for Ilumëo having been chosen to be Mercury's aide de camp over Datia some 22 years ago, despite Datia being more cunning, older and better at almost anything than Ilumëo, was because Datia had a tendency to be rather sadistic about it whenever she was told that something had to be taken care of.

It was a trait that was not attractive in an aide de camp, as that job required you to be able to act with more finesse on your own accord, and it was also not comforting for Mercury to have to constantly keep watch over his aide de camp's actions to ensure that they were in line with his policies.

Still, Datia still had her uses whenever something particularly dirty had to be done, as she was exceptional in making sure that things were kept under wraps, and generally had less scruples about doing something that might be considered amoral.

"I will have your cousin send you a list of the candidates that have talents that might be of particular use to the Alliance", Mercury answered her, "the rest are to simply be given the choice of giving up their life of crime or give up their life. I would suggest that you give out the offers in turns, so that you can use the rest of the Grey Organization to hunt down those that do not comply. The less we have to use regular army resources to deal with them, the less we risk exposure of the operation".

"And here I was hoping that you would lend me a couple of Centurions and then just let me wipe them out in one blow", Datia pouted, "but I guess that you are right that the other way has a lesser chance of exposure, and it would be kind of fun to do that as well".

"I will leave the details to you", Mercury said and dismissed her.

"She never changes, does she?", Arucane commented, "I am now more convinced than ever that my father made the right choice when he choice Ilumëo over her, even though they were both his grandchildren".

"Yes, your daughter has served me well", Mercury agreed with her. Datia was useful…on a leash. A tight leash.

"And now, you are crying blood on her wedding night", Arucane commented and handed Mercury a handkerchief.

"I had an unfortunate encounter a few weeks ago that forced me to draw upon It", Mercury explained as he gratefully accepted the handkerchief and used it to remove the blood before anyone else noticed, "the incident has accelerated the process more than I would have liked. I am afraid that it is now questionable whether I will manage to accomplish a couple of the key aspects of the plan before it happens".

"I see", Arucane nodded, "I must admit that I wish that I could have spared my daughter from having to witness this, but I guess that she will have to find her own way to cope with it".

"I am sure that she will do fine", Mercury confidently said, "she was raised by the best, after all".

Aurcane smiled at his statement, despite not knowing herself whether her father truly had been good at raising children or not. It was not the Uluth way for parents to raise their own children, after all. No, that right was reserved for whatever grandparent had been the aide de camp before the current one.

A tune played up, and together, Mercury and Arucane turned to watch as the bride and groom began their dance. Mercury took another long sip from his drink, knowing that tonight would be a long one. It was best to prepare himself for it, though not too much, or he might lose the necessary focus needed to maintain equilibrium.

* * *

So...quite a bit of contrast between the two's situations, eh?

Also, morales and ideals aside, I love how Mercury is willing to try to find a use for everyone, even sadists(like Datia) and murderers(like Edmure), while also being perfectly fine with disposing of unwanted elements that no longer has any usefulness(like the Grey Organization).


	18. Fates carved in stone

Hey, if any of you are concerned that this story seems to be getting progressively darker and more sad, I have written a segment concerning that at the very bottom of the page, but I warn you that it is sort of long.

Other than that, enjoy the next chapter from Mercury's POV.

* * *

**Fates carved in stone**

**Mercury POV(early spring of 294 AA)  
**"It is too hot", Mercury scoffed at the cup of tea presented to him.

"I am sorry, my lord, I will do better in the future", Kanra, his replacement aide, apologized and moved to remove the tea from his sight.

He stopped her hand before it had a chance to reach the tray with the two porcelain cups, one full and the other still unused, along with a teapot on it, and said, "no, leave it".

"Yes, my lord", Kanra meekly obeyed, curtsied and moved back, as if he could disintegrate her flesh by a simple touch. Well, he probably could, but that would be terribly messy and a complete waste of energy and a somewhat competent aide.

Kanra was a human female in her mid-twenties with long auburn hair and hazel eyes, who had replaced Ilumëo as his aide during the final stages of her pregnancy. When Mercury had first been introduced to her, she had curtsied at every opportunity, and even now, three weeks after their first meeting, she had yet to stop the insistent curtsying.

Mercury did not like her overly submissive nature. It was far too meek to do this job to his liking. If he had complained that his tea was too hot to Ilumëo, she would have bluntly told him to blow on it if it bothered him that much, though, now that Mercury thought about it, she would likely not have gotten the tea herself in the first place.

That was another of Kanra's qualities that he did not like. He would say fetch and she would immediately fetch. Never even once did it occur to her to delegate such menial tasks to others, and because she lacked that trait, she was falling behind in keeping up with his schedule.

Part of why Mercury kept giving her these tasks and kept complaining about menial things, like getting him a new pen because his current one was off in some miniscule way or telling her that one of his pictures looked slightly crooked, was because he was hoping that she would eventually show some backbone.

An aide, or his aide at least, should have enough backbone to be able to be stared down by the most powerful men and women in the Alliance and not flinch, something that Kanra certainly could not boast off, but neither could she show too much backbone and begin to refuse his serious orders.

It was a delicate balance, but one that had been mastered by every aide de camp provided by the Uluth family for four centuries now. In the end, Mercury could console himself with only having to put up with her for another two months.

"Would that be all, my lord?", Kanra questioned in her usual submissive tone.

"No, have some biscuits brought in here as well. Lord Karl prefers the brown ones with sugar frosting", Mercury ordered, and almost before he had finished, she had run off to fetch the items herself, _a peon through and through_.

Why Ilumëo had saddled him with this one, Mercury did not know. Perhaps her more competent ones had some other failures that were worse than this one's. Mercury trusted that Ilumëo had had her reasons for doing as she did, but even Mushu had picked up on the girl's overly submissive nature and constantly treated her as if her place in his pack was much lower than even the newest of Mercury's Varangian guards.

Kanra soon after returned with a bowl full of the biscuits that he had requested, and soon after, Lord Karl requested entrance, despite being invited here by Mercury. Mercury studied the man's miniscule expression change as he slowly came to grips with the tea and biscuits on the desk.

Mercury had not specified why he had invited him here in his invitation, and it had certainly been telling that the man's obvious concern, when you looked past the layers of false confidence and complacency, was whether this would be the time when his death sentence would be given to him.

"Please, have a seat, Lord Karl", Mercury politely gestured to the empty chair on the other side of the desk.

"…Thank you, Lord Mercury", the man replied and warily sat down, obviously still not trusting Mercury's intentions.

Kanra quickly set about filling the previously unused teacup, not even bothering to ask whether he wanted something in it, as Mercury had specified that none should be present at the table. Perhaps he should have her transferred to a maid position instead? It would certainly fit her submissive and curtsying nature better.

"Have a biscuit", Mercury offered, "I think that they are to your liking". They were his favourites after all.

The tea was the man's favourite brand as well, and the lack of any additives at the table was also because Mercury knew that the man never took any in his tea. Mercury could actually see the earl's eyes shifting from the tea to the biscuits to the tray without anything to put in the tea, and just to rub it in, Mercury slowly and purposely stretched out and took a biscuit, before meticulously taking a bite of it.

Other people would have assumed that he did it to show that they were not poisoned, but that was hardly the case for Mercury. No, Mercury did it because he knew that the earl would understand exactly what he was doing. He was not telling him that it was not poisoned, as much as he was all but screaming that he knew all of the earl's private little traits and habits.

"My favourites", Lord Karl finally decided to continue being polite and quickly reached for a biscuit, "you must have done your homework on me".

"I have", Mercury admitted with a faint smile. It truly was amusing to see for how long the earl would continue to keep up the façade, but that was not why he had called him here, "and I understand that you lost your eldest son in the war and no longer consider the second-eldest as your son?"

"Yes, he ran off with a harlot and took the family heirloom and some jewels with him", Lord Karl lied.

"I see, then I regret to inform you that my patrols found his body earlier this week", Mercury lied, "he appeared to have been robbed by bandits".

"I already only had one living son", the earl declared, even though Mercury could see his jaw working at the tale that both of them knew was a lie.

"And a daughter", Mercury added.

Lord Karl's eyes snapped to Mercury's in mere fractions of a second. They were filled with worry and fear at what Mercury might do to his little girl.

"Do not worry, I am far too old for her, and already married besides", the last bit was tacked along mostly as an afterthought, but Mercury was still able to witness the earl relax considerably, now that his worst fears had been waylaid.

Before the earl could utter another syllable, Mercury cut him off by continuing, "but I know certain others that are neither. Tell me, Lord Karl, would you be willing to strengthen your bonds to the Alliance provincial government by marriage?"

It was a trick question, as there really only was one acceptable answer in such a situation. Refusing would attract far too much attention as to why he would not want his daughter wed to the best possible match, especially for a man in Lord Karl's position.

"Well, it is not normally my practice to sell my children off to strangers that they have never even met", the earl tried to go for a third option; stalling.

"Hmm, but I thought that your youngest son, Garth was it, was to wed the duke of Ceunon's daughter in the place of his elder brother, which died honourably in battle last year, and it is my understanding that neither of the two have ever laid eyes upon one another", Mercury noted, before he decided to toss the man a rope, "but I am sure that that situation is different from the one that I am proposing. I will of course allow you to get acquainted with the one that I have in mind before anything becomes solid".

"Thank you", Lord Karl breathed out a sigh of relief, "who do have in mind anyway?"

"Well, you see, due to certain losses in the nobility over the course of the last year, I have been forced to bring in others to fill the vacant positions", Mercury explained, "the newest addition will take up the title of duke of Aberon, and he is looking to strengthening his tie to the province with a marriage through his 15 year old son".

Lord Karl gulped as he digested the news. It was easy for Mercury to anticipate what went through the man's head. Not only would his daughter's husband, and any future children of theirs, inherit far more lands and estates than his remaining son ever would, but the fact that the boy was only 15 ensured that he was not yet too old to have his thoughts influenced.

The offer was so good in fact that no sane person would ever dare to refuse it…unless they thought that the Alliance's grip on the province for some reason would shatter and all of the nobles and their families, which it had brought in, would be rounded up and executed.

It was one of Mercury's favoured tactics to ensure that the Alliance kept its presence solid throughout some of the more troublesome provinces, as intermarrying with the citizens of the particular province was a quick way to blur the line between us and them.

If Lord Karl ended up agreeing to the offer, and there really were no reasonable justifications not to, besides instigating a rebellion, that is, as though Mercury had never met the kid in question personally, he had been assured that he was quite charming and apparently had a thing for girls with black hair.

"I am sure that we could arrange for a few meetings to let the kids meet each other and see where it goes from there", Lord Karl grudgingly said.

"I am sure that they will be quite productive", Mercury showed a reassuring smile, "now, as I am sure that you are quite busy, I will not take up any more of your time".

"Not at all, my lord, meeting with you in person was my pleasure", Lord Karl politely answered and rose from his seat to properly make a small bow, before he excused himself from the room.

After he had left, Mercury turned to Kanra, whom had remained quiet and out of sight for the most of the meeting, and curtly said, "you are free for today after you have had this tray removed and told my next appointment that I finished earlier than expected".

"Yes, my lord", she curtsied and began picking up the tray and the used porcelain cups, which were only half-empty, before she tried curtsying once more with the filled tray in her hands, and only after that did she finally leave the room to do the only thing that he had needed her specifically to do.

After she had left, Mercury sighed in exhaustion. It was becoming more and more troublesome to keep up the façade and it was beginning to affect his manners as well. Damn them for attacking him after such a short while. It would have been far better for his schedule if they had chosen to attack later on, like after next month's event for example.

It was not even like he had disposed of any concerns during the failed ambush. All of the dead had been mere pawns on his board anyway, pawns that would have been removed in time as well, and the one important thing that he had actually gained from the battle could have easily been gained at a later time as well.

Still, he had enjoyed five months of relative peace since the ambush, and he supposed that if it had not been this group, then it might have been another instead. Probably the elven one, but Mercury had other plans for dealing with that one soon enough.

The months of peace had enabled him to show the ordinary citizens of Albion and Lav Fjäll that as long as they kept doing what they had always done, there would not be all that much of a change to their daily life, not yet anyway.

As soon as they were ready, he would begin to introduce the changes, privileges and duties that were mandatory for the rest of the Alliance citizens, and only once the province had been properly stabilized would the citizens be allowed to vote on whom they wanted to represent them in the Tribunal.

It had been one of Mercury's first lessons about conquering foreign populaces; institute change slowly, because no populace likes changes forced upon them, even if the changes are quite clearly beneficial for them.

Fear was a good tool to keep a rebellious populace from rebelling, which was something that Mercury knew quite a lot about, but if you wanted to ever be able to turn your back on them, then fear was a poor long-term strategy to employ.

Contentment on the other hand made sure that nobody would even bother to begin thinking rebellious thoughts, and Mercury had discovered that the key to ensuring that a populace was content did not lie in either patriotism or concepts of chivalrous leaders.

No, though many noblemen enjoyed the notion that their subjects loved them because they were chivalrous and righteous, Mercury had managed to outlive them all by keeping in mind that most people had simple desires.

People wanted to be fed, make sure that their children could grow up with hopes for a better future and that they could have something to spend their time on. The first and the third were easily obtained by simply allowing them to continue whatever job that they had before the invasion, and the second usually came as they realized that if their children had any special talents, then there were plenty of scholarships to schools that could give them the chance of a better future than their parents.

Once all of the basic demands had been met, you just needed to provide entertainment to distract them in their spare time, which was usually done by a mixture of reading The Report and providing certain sport tournaments for them to gather at and watch.

The commoners would let you get away with quite a lot as long as you kept them fed and entertained, whereas keeping nobles and other powerhouses in line took a far different approach. Mercury should know, considering that he had managed to sneak a law through the Tribunal, which entitled him to issue Special Orders, the effects of which were nationwide and required a three fourths agreed upon Tribunal vote to be repealed, and all he had to do to get it ratified was to get the consent of three ranking supreme commanders and at least one archduke, all of which were easily obtained.

The intent that the law had been passed under was to allow Mercury to secure Alliance interests if he encountered a foreign threat in a province and had no time to go through the usual much slower channels to put a stop to it, and since Mercury had been careful to not use it overly much, not unless he absolutely had to, the amount of people that even knew that it existed was quite small.

In fact, Mercury had used this privilege of his quite recently, and as if he could sense that Mercury's thoughts had turned to that subject, his next appointment knocked on the door at that very moment.

"My lord, everything has been readied for your arrival", Supreme Commander Rowannon, a dark skinned human in his late fifties, bowed as he entered the room, quickly followed by Commander Elladan of Mercury's Varangian Guard, who said, "I would like to provide your escort during this, my lord".

"Suit yourself", Mercury shrugged and rose from his chair, not bothering to argue that there were more important things that the commander could use his time on, "I am sure that it will be quite dull. Now, Supreme Commander Rowannon, lead the way".

The trio quickly departed the office with Supreme Commander Rowannon in the front, Mercury in the middle and Elladan at the back. When they reached the hallway leading to Mercury's office, four of the stationed Varangian guards moved to follow them to provide an escort, but Elladan waved them away, already knowing that Mercury wanted the group as small as possible to avoid drawing attention.

Once they reached halfway down the hall, which was decorated by having the entire Rider War carved into the sides of the marble hallway, Supreme Commander Rowannon looked both ways to ensure that no unwanted eyes were present, before he pushed down the head of a small dragon carving on the wall and then pulled down on the handle of a torch-turned-noflam.

Almost completely silently because of the freshly oiled hinges, a door appeared in the midst of the carved picture, which swung inwards to allow the trio to pass through, before it closed again behind them. They were now in a narrow tunnel that was lit by the original dwarven lanterns, instead of the Alliance's noflam versions.

These tunnels, which quickly began to descend downwards, were not constructs that Mercury had had built, but rather something that had been discovered when they had searched the palace for exactly these kind of secret getaways back when Mercury had first taken up residency in Ilirea Castle.

Soon enough, the walls transformed from cleanly cut stone blocks to a solid rock tunnel. They were now travelling inside the very cliff that Ilirea Castle was placed on. The tunnel continued for quite a while after that, eventually transforming into one of dirt walls with wooden support beams preventing the walls from caving in, until they finally began to go upwards again.

The trio eventually climbed up a ladder and through a trapdoor into a seemingly abandoned house, though it was far from abandoned, as four guards were constantly posted here around the clock. It was however convenient to allow those on the outside to continue assuming that it was abandoned.

The four guards handed each of the three a regular brown unassuming cloak, which they quickly put on, but kept the hoods down, as it would draw more attention if they were up. Mercury received a pair of coloured contact lenses to conceal his eyes, which he had found to be enough to fool all but those that saw him on a regular basis, as everyone kept expecting to see his silvery dragon-like eyes and therefore did not look twice upon any that did not have them.

After finishing with their disguises, the trio exited the house unnoticed and suddenly found themselves in the south-western part of Ilirea. They received some horses from a checkpoint underway, and before they knew it, they had crossed through the gates of the outer wall without so much as a second glance by the guards there.

Once out, Mercury and his two companions rode south for quite a while, before they headed east at a particular crossroad and then north a short while later. Confident that they had lost all possible pursuers, the trio continued on to a nearby fort, which had many guards patrolling the outer walls.

Only by revealing his identity and telling the password to the guards in front of the moat surrounding fort did Supreme Commander Rowannon get them to lower the drawbridge. Once the trio were inside the fort, the drawbridge was immediately closed again and Mercury's and Elladan's identities were confirmed, before they were allowed to proceed inside the actual fort.

"I hope that our security measures are to your satisfaction, my lord", Supreme Commander Rowannon asked as they moved through the halls of the fort.

"They appear adequate, but your greatest strength is still your anonymity. Make sure to retain that", Mercury answered, "which one has been prepared for me first?"

"Number 207, my lord", Supreme Commander Rowannon answered, but upon encountering a stern look from Mercury, he elaborated, "uhm, a white specimen of approximately 600-800 years of age upon expulsion according to calculations of its size. It appeared to act as a spokesperson for the rest when we first encountered it".

"Excellent, I believe that I know that one", Mercury nodded as he digested the information.

They passed several guards on their way, all dökkálfar warriors that were supposed to be masters of mental defence, until they finally reached a solid iron door, which was where Supreme Commander Rowannon parted from the other two to continue his other duties, before Mercury and Elladan proceeded inside.

The room inside was an ordinary prison cell, if rather well-lit, and on either side of the inside of the door, a ra'zac guard equipped with a two-handed battle-axe stood at attention. Mercury wordlessly nodded to each of them, upon which they wordlessly nodded back, before he moved to sit in the chair on the opposite side from the pedestal that was placed at the centre of the room from where the door was, thereby not obstructing the view of the pedestal from the ra'zac guards.

Elladan took up position at Mercury's shoulder, but remained stoic and quiet, as he was supposed to. There was placed a red pillow on top of the stone pedestal directly in front of Mercury, and atop the pillow, there was an enormous white gemstone, which could have fooled anyone into thinking that it was a diamond if not for the swirling lights inside of it.

Without a word, Mercury extended his mind towards the eldunarí and released the first of the spells that kept it dormant. Upon release, he felt an entity stir from within, but he had not removed the spells that stopped it from extending its consciousness beyond its own eldunarí, so there was nowhere else for it to go than meet with Mercury's conscious at the edge of its mental border.

_Hello Umaroth, it has been a while_, Mercury greeted the remnants of the old dragon.

_You!_, Umaroth exclaimed, _you were responsible for those men that stormed the sacred chamber, and now you have taken me somewhere that I do not recognize. What is the meaning of this? Even if Estildirin has fallen, help will come-_

_You have been asleep for almost a year now_, Mercury cut him off, _Alagaësia, as you know it, fell two months after Estildirin did. And before you attempt anything reckless, allow me to inform you that there are two ra'zac guards, whose minds you cannot even perceive, standing ready to destroy your eldunarí the moment that they suspect that something might be wrong_.

The old remnant of a dragon seemed to mull this over for a while, no doubt debating the validity of his statement, before it suddenly perked up, _you have changed_.

_Yes, everyone does eventually_, Mercury acknowledged, though he suspected that the old dragon meant something else.

_No, I meant that you, your essence, have changed_, Umaroth elaborated, _you are-_

_I am_, Mercury cut him off again.

…_Why?_, the question was a loaded one, as it carried many questions behind it, but Mercury chose to answer the most important of them first.

_I needed more time_, he mentally shrugged, careful not to let the others in the room glean anything from their conversation, _after Kilgharrah died, I lost the link that provided me with eternal youth. It took quite a while before I started aging again, nearly three decades, and since it started out very slowly, it took another decade before I even noticed it. I had to find a way to stall the aging effects, and this one was proven to work, though with certain side-effects that I had to find a way to negate before I could begin the process_.

_So you mean that you are still in control?_, Umaroth wanted to clarify.

_Yes, the other one is safely locked away at the centre of what you perceive as my mind_, Mercury agreed, _it takes a bit of effort to keep It there, but I cannot complain about the results_, as he said the last bit, he showed Umaroth a mental picture of himself as he looked in the mirror from earlier that day.

_How has anyone not noticed yet?_, Umaroth asked confused, _surely someone must have initiated mental contact and found out as I did?_

_Not really, since I am already considered unique, no one questions that this is how my mind should feel like_, Mercury denied, _and since the most obvious physical effects are easily changed, no one suspects a thing, though maintaining the change is apparently rather straining for the body_.

…_Why are you revealing all of this to me?_, Umaroth wanted to know, before he came up with the answer himself, _you are not planning on letting me live_.

_No, your fate is already set in stone, as is mine_, Mercury mentally shrugged, _I only want to offer you the chance to pass on bits of the wisdom that you have accumulated over the years and want future generations to know of, with the obvious exception of the topic of our previous discussion_.

…_Is it an offer given solely to me?_, Umaroth asked nervous.

_No, I have sentenced all eldunarya to death_, Mercury revealed, _every eldunarí will be given the offer beforehand, and I can say that quite a few of you accepted your fate with dignity and chose to leave something of worth behind. The collective tomes of your wisdom will be copied and distributed out to all public libraries across the Alliance_.

_You cannot proceed with this!_, Umaroth's eldunarí flared in anger, but Mercury waved the ra'zac guards away from destroying it then and there.

_I can and I will_, Mercury stated sternly, _there is nothing that you, or anyone, can do to stop me from this_.

_If you continue, the consequences will be severe_, Umaroth threatened.

_They always are_, Mercury scoffed at the threat, _what makes you think that I care about anything that you do to this body? It is replaceable._

Mercury knew that Umaroth's threat would be meaningless in comparison with his endgame goals, even if the threat was genuine and doable, which Mercury did not believe that it was, as the many spells placed around each of the eldunarya prevented them from influencing the outside world.

_Anyway, I have a busy schedule, so I need your answer now_, Mercury demanded impatiently, _will you or will you not contribute any last bits of wisdom to the future generations?_

_I would rather die than give you a single bit of advice but this one; do not proceed if you know what is best for you_, Umaroth angrily said.

_And so you will_, Mercury said the final words before raising the spells that put Umaroth back to sleep once again.

"This one refused, send in the next one", he ordered aloud. It would be quite a busy few weeks if he had to use even a fraction of the time that he had used on Umaroth on the rest as well.

The next one, number 209, was an eldunarí that made Umaroth's look like a pebble. Mercury learned that its name was Valdr, but whether the former dragon even understood what Mercury was trying to communicate the best that he knew how to, he did not know.

Its thinking was convoluted and strange, and the answer that it gave him after he had finished trying to explain what he wanted was equally so. It looked like flashes of memories put together to tell a story, though a fractured one that went back and forth in time and even in itself.

Mercury wrote it down as poetry and moved on.

* * *

...And Mercury is being a bit more diabolical, so no new surprises there.

And now for the little speech that I promised:  
First of all, I would like to say that I know that it has been kind of dark lately. The reason for this is not because I desired the darkness for the sake of darkness, but because the storyline simply demanded that it be as such. Loivissa has been a subject of much abuse so far, but given that she is opposed to Mercury and wants to kill him(and that she was captured by him at the very start), there would not have been that many other routes for her to follow than the one that I have written. To put it frankly, everything that happens in this story is a cascade effect of earlier decisions and actions(sometimes unintended by the characters, but always intended by me to produce a certain end result).  
For instance; I needed Vanir to be guilty about surviving his escape and therefore pledge fealty to Loivissa. To do that, I needed someone important to die in his stead(Blödhgarm), whom he could feel guilty towards. I then needed to find a way to have Blödhgarm actually be in Alagaësia and also be motivated to make this decision. Hence, I made him Islanzadi's bodyguard/advisor and kept mentioning that he was at her side whenever I could to make it plausible that he would do this.  
So you see, during the planning of this story, I often had to start by saying what my end result should be like, and then work backwards with the how and why until it became feasible, which is why it has turned out as dark as it has. And all for the want of a nail...

Though I know that I labelled this story tragic, I mostly did so because of how dark most of its story was. Not because of its ending.


	19. Deus ex Shattered

Enjoy! Muhahahaha...

* * *

**Deus ex Shattered**

**Loivissa POV(spring of 642 ADG)  
**Loivissa walked in the streets of Ilirea, just like any other ordinary person. She had not even changed her appearance, and yet she was still able to freely walk into any city that she wanted to. Even the guards at the gates had only questioned her about where she came from, what her purpose for visiting Ilirea was and how long she intended to stay, before they had let her in just like that.

They were the same questions that were asked to any other person that came to visit any other city with a city gate and guards to guard it. No one took particular notice of her. Not even her elven lineage was cause for anything more than looks of curiosity and wonder.

The only problem with this was that Loivissa was not an ordinary person. She was the daughter of Arya and Eragon Shadeslayer, the rider of Adûn, a Shadeslayer in her own right, the veteran of many battles, both famous and those that were not remembered by anyone anymore, and most importantly, she was the acting leader of the liberation group known as Aiedail, the goal of which was to kill Mercury and free the lands of Alagaësia from his tyrannical grip.

There should have been flyers everywhere, posters that warned the populace of her malcontent and offered huge rewards for her capture…but there were none. There had never been any, not even once during his almost one year long reign.

Not even after their attempted ambush six months ago had any posters been put up, and it bothered Loivissa to no end, because she knew that he had seen her there at the time. He had to have seen her there. There was simply no chance that he had not seen her back then.

Furthermore, she knew that he knew that Earl Karl was a member of Aiedail, though she had not told the earl of this knowledge. It would only cause unnecessary worry within him and make it harder for the man to do his duty.

She had known that he would know of the earl's affiliations ever since they had had to leave Aaron behind six months ago, and yet she had sent the earl into the lion's den anyway, as Garth had so aptly put it. She knew that sacrifices would have to be made if they were to free this continent, and so, she had made hers.

The information that the earl might discover while undercover was simply too valuable for her to give up in exchange for the life of one man, and even if the earl had been killed on sight the very moment that he had stepped foot inside the court room, everyone would have realized what Mercury's true nature was, as they would have watched him butcher a seemingly innocent noble without a fair trial or any evidence of treachery. It had been a win for her cause no matter the outcome.

Even though the act was reprehensible, Loivissa knew that everyone would thank her for it once Alagaësia was free once again, would tell her that she had made the right calls under impossible circumstances.

But Mercury had not devoured the earl when he had first arrived, despite absolutely having to know what the man really thought of him. Instead, he had played with the earl, like a fat cat being content to play with a mouse, safe in the belief that it could not harm him in any way.

Loivissa had realized then that it was because he had swept their entire group under the rug. All of its members and all of their deeds, even their failures, were swept away like they were nothing, like none of them had even existed.

It was strange, as the ability to move freely through the lands should have aided their group's cause, but instead, it had hindered them. No one knew of them, and though they had meant to go underground, it did do them any good when they were unable to get any support from the common people because the common people did not know of them or their cause, thereby limiting the support that they were ready to give without unreasonable long assurances and negotiations.

Mercury had even gone so far as to involve Katrina in his machinations by forcing the girl's father to agree to let her be married off to some foreigner's son if he could not find any reasonable fault with the boy. And the earl had not been able to find any that did not border on treason, as the little brat was apparently not only well-looking and well-mannered, but also somehow managed to find mutual interests between the two of them like they were growing on trees.

Earl Karl had been forced to give the go-ahead, and so, the two had become betrothed, to the surprise of both children, as neither of them had been allowed to learn of the arrangement beforehand; courtesy of Mercury's manipulating hand under the guise of 'getting the two to know each other without the consequences being apparent to either'.

Still, even Katrina had been an acceptable sacrifice if they wanted to stand a chance of winning this war. Of course, Loivissa had not been able to actually tell that to anyone, so she had raged and told the earl that, yes, it was an unforgiveable act to involve even children in the politics between elders.

"My lady, we should leave this place", Vanir advised from beside her.

He was dressed like her, in a simple green cloak covering his other clothes with its hood pulled down to avoid drawing unwanted attention. Apparently, these days, it was cause for more concern if someone went through the streets of Ilirea with their hoods up than if elves walked through them openly.

Still, it was better not to draw any further attention than they already were, which was why they had agreed to only speak in the human tongue. Looks might be overlooked in passing, especially if the two kept their ears veiled under their hair, but sound carried much further and quickly singled the two out amongst a crowd.

"We cannot, not yet anyway", Loivissa answered him, "not until we learn what we came here for".

"But, my lady, it could be a trap designed to ensnare you", Vanir protested once again, as he had ever since she had decided to go here in person.

It seemed that when he had sworn to follow her lead, he had meant it as in also making sure that no harm would ever come to her. Whenever he was not actively doing her bidding, he would follow her silently wherever she went, no matter the danger.

Still, Loivissa did not mind it overly much, as it was rather nice to have someone devoted to watching your back at all times. He was certainly better suited for the role of her travelling companion than the dwarf Dweyrn was, and it left her mind free to do other things, like finding ways to counter Mercury's machinations.

It only really became annoying when he, like today, insisted that she should not have come personally and instead let him do it in her stead, but she could not allow him to go in her stead, as she had to see for herself what it was that had caused Earl Karl to so fervently say that something was happening in the public square of Ilirea, but that no matter what he tried, he could not find out what it was.

The square had been completely closed off for the last few days now, but posters hanging throughout the city stated that it would be reopened later today, and that though it was not mandatory for the populace to attend, it was recommended, as there would apparently be some kind of important announcement.

"It is unlikely that it is a trap designed for me", Loivissa rebutted, "most of Ilirea's population, more than two hundred thousand people, will be there, so it will be impossible to recognize one from the other".

In truth, Loivissa had already considered the possibility of it being a trap. She really could not know whether Mercury had become so decrepit that he was willing to institute the massacre of Ilirea's entire population just to get to her.

He had already slaughtered one quarter of a million people just in the opening months of his invasion, and a lot more if she was to believe some of the stories of how he had expanded the Alliance to the size that it was today, but still, it seemed off to her for him to do something as blunt and unrefined as that.

However twisted he had become, Loivissa could still recognize large parts of who he had been before in his actions today, and she knew that he would do whatever it took to quell any rebellious thoughts silently and out of the public eye before they grew to an unmanageable size. There was no sense in being ruler if your kingdom was nothing but ashes after all.

So, in the end, she had decided that the likelihood of it being a trap was slim and she had therefore decided to come herself, and she was glad that she had. The streets were teeming with gossip about whatever Mercury had planned, with ideas ranging from Mercury declaring dominion over the night sky as well, and somehow finding a way to actually see it through, to the execution of all of his captured dragon riders.

Others were speculating that the dragon riders would be swearing loyalty to him, but Loivissa did not believe that. Surely no rider or dragon would ever consider allying with him after what he had done.

All of the rumours were unconfirmed, though many claimed to have heard it from a friend that knew a guy that worked with someone and so on, but they were still interesting to Loivissa to listen to. The very nature of rumours was that they reflected the general public opinion of their subject, and it was very useful to know that.

"Should we get something to eat then?", Vanir asked, now fully convinced that she would not budge on the matter.

It had been quite a while since Loivissa had last ate, and who knew when the chance might come next if something happened that caused the two of them to have to escape the city, so she agreed and he went to a nearby vendor and bought them both something.

Practical-minded as always, Vanir bought them each a loaf of sarin, a part of the foreign cuisine that had arrived when the Alliance had. Sarin was an oval loaf of bread made from a variety of many different types of corn, including wheat, rye and many others, and on the outside, it was roasted to a golden crisp on all sides and angles.

Inside of it, there was a thickly flowing substance that tasted sweet and sour at the same time, which made it possible to eat the loaf without adding anything to it. According to the description that many of the foreign vendors gave, a single loaf of sarin would be enough to keep a grown man going for an entire day if he rationed the loaf evenly over breakfast, lunch and dinner.

She did not know about the credibility of the latter, though she had to admit that you quickly felt full when eating one, and then there was the fact that as long as you kept eating at it from only one side, you could cover the hole with the wrapper that was around it and thereby stop the liquid inside from getting out, so that you could continue where you left off at a later time.

Hungrily, Loivissa tore into her loaf, breaking the crispy shell to get into the soft inner parts. The first bite was always the best in her opinion, as it somehow felt special to know that THIS was the very first bite that was taken of the loaf, and the crunchy sweet-tasting bread did nothing to lessen that feeling.

She was chewing on her sixth bite, already feeling full by then, when the square was reopened and people were allowed in. Loivissa and Vanir did not need to do anything other to get in there than follow the stream of people going there.

The crowd moved slowly, but Loivissa was not overly concerned whether they would be too late to get in, as she knew from experience that the giant public square that they were going towards was more than big enough for the entirety of Ilirea's population to stand there, at least now that a large chunk of said population no longer lived.

On the way, there was pushing, there was shoving and there were many people that bumped into her, and though Vanir initially forcefully made sure that those that did so would not do so again, she eventually got him to stop it, as it was drawing too much attention. She could survive being bumped into every once in a while.

Finally, they reached one of the entrances into the square, of which there were several spread out on all four sides of the large square.

"Finally", Loivissa grumbled as she came closer to getting in, only to then realize that on each side of the entrance, there were two pairs of dökkálfar guards standing at attention.

They were fully armed with spears in one hand, large tower shields in the other, a sword hanging from their belts and they were all fully armoured in the customary plate armour reserved for members of Mercury's Varangian Guard.

"Barzûl", Loivissa cursed as she quickly lowered her head as much as she possible could without seeming to actually hide from the guards.

The city guards and local Alliance forces might not know of her, but there was no chance in all of Alagaësia that he had not told his own Guard of her, showed them a picture of her and subsequently told them to capture her on sight.

Beside her, Vanir uttered a string of his favourite elven curses as he too discovered her cause of concern, and like her, he lowered his head as much as he could without seeming like he tried to hide. They were lucky that they had incidentally been placed at the centre of the column marching in, as they would have no doubt been spotted if they had been on either side.

"Should we raise our hoods to conceal our identities?", Vanir whispered into her ear so low that no one could have overheard it.

"No, two strangers with their faces covered will look more suspicious and be more likely to catch their attention", Loivissa whispered back as she minutely shook her head, "our best bet will be to blend in and hope that they do not search people before letting them in".

Luckily, no one was searched and people simply had to walk past the guards, who joked and laughed amongst themselves, though Loivissa noted that their eyes were deadly serious at all times, even in the midst of laughing.

The minute that it took to get past them was one that Loivissa could have sworn lasted an hour at the very least. Her heart was beating rapidly the entire time and she constantly had to stop herself from looking to either side to check whether one of the guards recognized her and was on his way to grab her.

Vanir seemed to be worse than her in that regard, and though he tried to hide it, she could feel how his eyes constantly shifted to her, then straight ahead, then back to her, then as far to either side as was allowed when facing straight ahead, and then back to looking straight ahead again.

Only after they had passed the guards and were well on their way did Loivissa breath out a sigh of relief, before she and Vanir took up places near a crowd of people in the left foremost section of the square, which faced towards a wooden stage.

The large wooden stage that took up a large part of one of the square's sides was definitely new, and so were the 35 to 40 balconies that had been set up on each of the barren walls of the houses facing in on the edges of the square.

Each of these balconies had a large ballistae mounted on it, with spare shots resting against the wall, and they were manned by five people each, which all wore the armour of the Varangian Guard. Two of the men on each balcony looked to be there to man and operate the large ballistae, while the other three each had a large crossbow in their hands, and all had swords in their belts.

A few metres in front of and on the sides of the wooden stage, facing outwards towards the audience, there were three rows of guards clad and armed identically to the ones that had been guarding the entrances. The guards there stood stiffly shoulder to shoulder with their shields held at rest on the ground in front of them and the spears held upwards in perfect unison.

They were completely docile for now, with the exception of making sure that there was roughly 2 metres between them and the front of the crowd, which just so happened to coincide with the length of their spears when held at the ready.

As Loivissa let her eyes roam over the other entrances, she noticed that the amount of guards at each varied with the width of the entrance. It was then that she realized that the number of guards always seemed to fit with roughly having two rows of guards placed similarly to those in front of the stage.

The wooden stage itself had no guards on it, but there were twelve wooden pedestals spread out evenly in front of the crowd. They were all empty and were clearly too tall to use if someone wanted to use them to execute anyone other than urgals, so despite the quite severe and quite unnerving level of security in place, Loivissa did not actually expect any executions to occur. At least not on the stage.

She was beginning to doubt whether it might not have been a trap after all. The numbers and placements of his Varangian Guard certainly seemed to indicate that it was, but she had not thought that he would actually go through with such a scheme. It would not suit everything that he had done for the last year to do something like this now, not when the population of the Empire, now labelled Albion, was finally beginning to accept the changes that had been enforced until now.

"My lady…", Vanir said concerned.

"There is nothing that we can do now but watch and wait", Loivissa answered his unspoken question, "trying to leave now would equal being discovered".

"…I understand", he said with gritted teeth.

And so, they waited, waited for the square to fill and for the show to begin, because if there was one thing that Loivissa was sure of, then it was that this was simply one big show to Mercury. She still knew him well enough to know that he liked doing things behind closed doors, where matters could be done efficiently and quietly.

Even all of the beneficial things, such as his giant road-project, that he had done until now had been agreed upon and carried out with nothing more than notices on the walls to inform the populace of the changes, so in order for him to prepare a stage like this one, he had to have written a script that would tell exactly how things were to play out.

When the square finally seemed to be filled with people, the sound of trumpets broke through the chatter and quickly quieted everyone down. They were playing a melody, almost like a marching melody, and before Loivissa had time to ponder any further on the subject, twelve hooded human men that were each carrying a large two-handed battle-axe walked up from somewhere below the stage.

The twelve men all marched in tandem as they each went to stand in front of one of the pedestals, where they set down their battle-axes to rest on the wooden floor with the blade facing outwards.

_Perhaps I was wrong in this being an execution_, Loivissa mused, _but are there even enough urgal prisoners for them to warrant having to use twelve executioners at the same time?_

It was then that Mercury appeared from the same spot that the twelve hooded men had arisen from. He was clad in the silvery full-plate armour with his insignia engraved on the chest that he had first toured the city in, a dark purple cape hung down from his shoulders and in his belt, the ebony and ivory encrusted sheath with the sword that had a wolf's head crossguard hung at his left side, and on the right side, a large scroll was secured.

Loivissa had to admit that as he stood there at the centre of the stage, with his back straight, one hand resting on the hilt of the sword and the other dangling down his side, with the fingers slightly moving like he was playing an instrument, he looked quite impressive and fearsome.

His very appearance seemed to scream that this was a lord that you had to either fear, respect or both, and his silvery dragon-like eyes spoke volumes of how he was in a world that was so completely his own, and so alien to everyone else's, that he might as well have been taken directly out of a fairy tale.

A dark twisted fairy tale, where good's only chance of beating evil was by becoming evil in the name of doing good.

Loivissa watched as he let his gaze travel slowly over the crowd, like a hawk seeking prey, and whatever small chatter there might have been left was instantly silenced as this being moved his gaze over them. When he reached the area where Loivissa stood, she averted her face to avoid recognition, as did Vanir, but because she could not completely quench the curiosity to look upon him once again, to meet his gaze and let him know that she was not cowed by him, she turned it back at the very last moment.

Their gazes met, or perhaps they did not, she was one set of eyes amongst a large crowd of them after all, but she could have sworn that for a fraction of a second before he moved on, his eyes darted towards hers and pierced her iron-willed gaze like it was a spear going through flesh.

_He knows!_, Loivissa screamed inside her head, already reaching for the concealed blade on her person and getting ready to run at the first sign of trouble.

…And nothing else happened. He did not signal the guards to arrest her and take her into custody, did not even return to her general area when he let his gaze sweep back across the crowd. Perhaps he had not recognized her after all, but she had been so sure that he had that it was almost impossible for her to even conceive that he might not have.

It was then that she realized that she had been too caught up in staring at him that she had not noticed that the twelve pedestals were no longer empty. Each of them now held a gemstone of a different colour and size to the other; an eldunarí.

"Citizens of Albion, people from all across the continent of Alagaësia and the rest of the world", Mercury's powerful voice broke her out of her trance and made her focus solely on him, hoping against hope that he would not do what she feared that he was planning on, "many of you will no doubt be confused as to why I have presented these…gemstones…to you in such a way, and to all but a few, that is what these things are; mere gemstones.

That is however not their true nature", at this he paused for a bit before he continued, "the dragon riders of old did not want you to know of this, to know how the mad king Galbatorix was able to destroy their old order and conquer most of Alagaësia with only a handful of followers".

No, he would not! He could not reveal the dragon riders' most revered secret to everyone like this! It was wrong!

"These", he said as he pointed at the one in front of him, a white one that Loivissa recognized as Umaroth-elda's, "are what allowed one man to overthrow governments and defeat any opposing force, no matter how large. By possessing hundreds of these, he was nigh on unstoppable. That is, until another that likewise possessed hundreds of these challenged him.

Yes, the truth behind the story of that day is that it never even mattered what result the battle outside of the throne-room held, because whoever emerged victorious from there would be unstoppable by any force that could be mustered.

On that day, two piles of hundreds of eldunarya became one, and with such power behind him, Eragon Shadeslayer could have conquered every country in the entire world by himself, but he chose not to misuse the power given to him, but to instead guard it precariously".

Loivissa knew that Mercury was playing the audience like an instrument, deliberately using their instilled hatred for a mad king that had long since passed, and avoiding to conflict with their views of who the heroes of history were. Doing the latter would have severely crippled whatever he might have said next, but keeping to tradition was a sure way to let them know that he 'agreed' with them on who was evil and who was good, thereby making them more malleable.

"It was a brave and noble decision to make, but ultimately, it was the wrong decision", he continued, "for 642 years now, that pile of gemstones, or eldunarya, as the elves and riders would call them, has been growing.

How, you may ask, how are these eldunarya made that could make any one person capable of going against any foe and win? I will tell you this secret as well; they are the undead souls of dragons whose mortal coils have died.

Inside of each of these eldunarya, there rests the undead spirit of a dragon that has long since died, and which is now forever trapped within the confines of its eldunarya. They are incapable of breeding, incapable of growing, incapable of ever ending their own existence on their own if they should ever want to, and ultimately, incapable of defending their own eldunarí from outside forces, thereby making them easy to capture and subdue".

He then fiddled with the scroll in his belt, before he managed to free it and unfold it before the crowd, "because no person should ever again be allowed to wield such power without the consent of the people, and to remove these undead souls from their eternal cages, I hereby issue this declaration:

Following the ratification of Special Order 66, the existence of eldunarya is hereby banished throughout all provinces of the Silver Wave Alliance. All eldunarya found are to be destroyed on sight. Obstructing the destruction of or harbouring an eldunarí will result in the penalty of death. So says Mercury of House Iridium, Lord Commander of the Silver Wave Alliance, archduke of The Northern Wastes, acting archduke of Albion and the last king of Damocles".

_You just want to remove any threat to your own tyrannical rule!_, Loivissa screamed inside her head, but only fumed on the outside.

The eldunarya were one of the objects that she had been hoping to get news of these last six months. She had hoped that perhaps, the cache had not been discovered when Estildirin had fallen, and that if she could simply get her hands on it, then she could overthrow Mercury, free Alagaësia and stop all of the armies and navies that the Alliance might send in the future, but that would no longer be possible if he carried his threat through.

"As the instigator of Special Order 66, I, Mercury of House Iridium, Lord Commander of the Silver Wave Alliance, archduke of The Northern Wastes, acting archduke of Albion and the last king of Damocles, will be the one to carry out the first deed", the treasonous murderous backstabbing tyrannical psychopath said as he was handed one of the large battle-axes, which he seemed to easily lift with only his right hand.

Loivissa wanted to stop him, to charge forward and stop him from going through with this madness, but her rationality told her that she would not even make it to the first row of guards before her attempt would be stopped by the guards posted on the balconies.

She thought about crying out instead, but the angry jeers and exclamations from the ordinary people beside her, where all of them were yelling "do it!" or "destroy them!", stopped her from doing so. He had won over the crowd with his speech, where he had twisted the truth to get people to agree with his views.

None of them understood what was really going on here, so Loivissa could not blame them for acting like this when they had only heard one twisted version of the story, but that did not stop her from being slightly angry at them all, despite knowing that she should not be.

Instead of crying out or rushing to stop Mercury, she focused her energy on holding back Vanir, who would have already stormed ahead and been shot if she had not held on to him.

The battle-axe was raised in the air, and to spare him the sight of what was to happen, despite Vanir actually being older than her, Loivissa made a hard tug on his sleeve and kicked the back of his knee, which forced him to his knees, before she turned him around and kept him steady and under control.

Mercury had reached the highest point of the swing by then, and he seemed to hesitate for no longer than a fraction of a second, before he forced down the blade of the battle-axe with an incredible speed and strength behind it.

Everything after that occurred almost as if time had decided to only run at a fifth of the speed that it usually did. The front tip of the blade connected with the white shell of Umaroth-elda's eldunarí and stopped there for a fraction of a fraction of a second, before it cut into the eldunarí.

Just as the blade pierced the eldunarí, Loivissa felt a ripple going through the very earth and air, and a powerful all-consuming light emanated from where the eldunarí had been. When it finally resided, there were only shattered fragments of the white eldunarí left on the pedestal.

By then, Mercury quickly handed the battle-axe back to its original owner, but with his left hand instead of his right one this time. The right hand was meanwhile tugged away inside the folds of the dark purple cape.

"Carry on", he ordered in a brisk tone as he turned to walk down below the stage, but as he turned, his cape flared because of a gust of wind, and for a brief moment, Loivissa saw that from his hand and up to a bit below the elbow, there seemed to have formed…cracks…in it, which glowed an angry red from within, but the next moment, the hand was safely tugged away inside the folds of the cape again.

It had been too fast for anyone that did not have elven senses to see, but Loivissa was sure that she had seen them nonetheless. That was why, as the remaining eleven eldunarya were being shattered in a similar fashion, with ripples going through the very air and earth yet again, she looked closely to spot whether any of the other executioners would gain the same marks, but none of them did.

A new batch of twelve eldunarya was carried up from where Mercury had disappeared down, and once again, they were shattered in the same fashion that the last eleven had been. Loivissa kept holding Vanir down as the third batch was carried up, in which she recognized Glaedr-elda's golden eldunarí, before it too was shattered.

The ripples kept going through the air and earth each time an eldunarí was shattered, but no one but Loivissa and Vanir seemed to be able to feel them, and none of the executioners ever received the same red cracks that Loivissa had seen on Mercury's right arm.

Eventually, the fragments became so many that several people with brooms were brought up to sweep them down in the space between the guards and the stage, before the executions continued once again. Loivissa kept a close count of how many eldunarya that were destroyed, and when the final batch had been destroyed, she was certain that all of the eldunarya from the dragon rider stash in Estildirin now lay amongst the hill-sized pile of broken fragments that had been created.

The hill would have been beautiful, with its thousand colours glinting in the sun, if not for the fact that she knew that each of those colours was the remains of a once proud dragon.

Later, after she had gotten out of Ilirea with Vanir, Loivissa learned that each of the fragments were to be used in a giant mosaic that would form the new floor underneath the very public square where they had all been destroyed.

* * *

I feel like playing The Master again.


	20. New beginnings

Well, the reactions to the execution went better than I expected.

* * *

**New beginnings**

**Mercury POV(a week after the execution)  
**Mercury sat cross-legged in a rather uncomfortable chair with two bare wooden armrests and a stiff back, where he was reading one of the reports that he had brought with him. Across from him, sitting on the sole bench in the small stone-walled square room with only two doors in it, was his escort for today, Kolrka of the Varangian Guard.

Unlike during last week's executions, Mercury's Varangian Guard actually rarely dressed in the formal plate armour unless they were to be on public display or expected to be in serious battle. Instead, Kolrka was dressed in a simple chainmail with a black vest, which had the Varangian Guard's motif on it, on top of the chainmail and a sword at his waist.

The scraping sound of the sword being drawn halfway up from its sheath and then being dropped down again was continually heard from Kolrka's side of the room. The sound of tapping feet soon followed the scraping of the sword, which was made all the worse by the metal knobs underneath the soles of said feet.

Mercury sent one look towards his noisy companion, upon which he immediately seized all movement with a very forlorn expression lingering on his face, before Mercury returned his attention back to the documents in front of him.

He had barely finished the page that he was on before the scraping noise began again, but this time, he chose to ignore it. By the time Mercury turned over the page with a black leather-gloved hand, the sound of a finger being tapped against wood could be heard.

_Great, this one needs to be signed too_, Mercury thought irritated at having to once again bother with the task.

He drew a pen and a jar of ink from the stack at his feet, before he manoeuvred the sheet of paper so that the place that needed the signature at least had some support from the left armrest, before he proceeded to sign it.

As he removed the pen from the paper and meant to put it back in its place, a drop of ink fell from it and landed on his clothes, but it was alright, because he was wearing a black doublet with silver fastenings today, so no one would be able to see the stain.

The sound of tapping feet once again joined the symphony that his guard seemed to be composing, and because his patience was generally a lot thinner these days, combined with it already being tested right now, Mercury snapped at him to bring them both something cool to drink.

Yes, they had been here for hours, and yes, they were both well aware that just on the other side of one of the doors, blood was being shed, a person's limits tested and screams of agony, which occasionally filtered through the door, were being released with a near constant interval, but that did not mean that they could not be reasonable and polite on this side of the door.

Mercury understood that Kolrka was highly uncomfortable with just sitting there and doing nothing, but if he could at least be quiet, then Mercury might at least get some work done while they waited. Then again, perhaps he was judging the man a little too harshly. After all, Mercury was so used to what was happening on the other side of the door that he did not think overly much of it.

When Kolrka returned a few minutes later with a goblet in each hand, Mercury noted that he looked considerably more relaxed than he had been when he left. After setting one of them down on Mercury's armrest, he returned to his seat, where he kept his hands busy with simply holding the goblet and occasionally drinking from it.

Just as Mercury reached for his own goblet, another scream cut through the door, but his movements did not falter even in the slightest as he grabbed the goblet with his right hand. The cold metal felt soothing against the burning inside the glove, but as Mercury brought it up to his lips to take a sip from it, he recognized the liquid as wine cooled with ice.

He could not have alcohol, could not allow his will to be dulled even in the slightest at the moment, so instead of drinking the cool liquid that might have quenched a part of his raging and rather annoying headache, Mercury had to settle for simply using the goblet and its contents as a rather expensive ice-pack against his hand.

"Do you think that it is going well?", Kolrka asked for the umpteenth time since they had gotten here.

"If it was not, I am sure that we would have been told", Mercury falsely reassured the man.

In truth, he knew enough of what was going on the other side to know that if something was going awry and they spent precious time coming out here to inform the two of them of that, then he would probably snap at the person to get back in there and do her job instead of standing out here talking.

Well, under normal circumstances, he might have snapped, but as his patience was right now, Mercury could not be sure that he might not accidentally break his chair in a rather creative way while explaining just why she should be in there instead of out here in a VERY unnerving tone.

He could feel a voice inside of him agreeing that that course of action was exactly what he should do, but he quenched the voice and spent the next few minutes patching up the hole that it had used to escape from its prison.

"My lords, they are ready to receive you now", one of the female healers suddenly said.

Mercury had been so deep in thought that he had not even noticed the screaming ending or the door opening, but it did not matter overly much, as he simply calmly put down his work and rose to follow the healer inside, sensing that Kolrka was followed only a step behind him in trepid anticipation.

The first sensation that hit Mercury was the smell of blood, a scent so familiar to him that it was practically second nature, but he did not have time to muse on all the times that he had been bathed in blood, as a squealing babe robed in a white blanket was suddenly and abruptly thrust into his arms.

"…So?", Ilumëo asked weakened from her blood-covered bed in the middle of the room, "what do you think of him?"

As she asked this, Mercury took a closer look at the grey-skinned bundle of fat and tears in his black leather-gloved hands. With the exception of the colour of its eyes, which were a marine blue, it looked exactly like Ilumëo, both of her brothers and all of their ancestors going back to Naina's children, had looked when they had just been born.

Mercury had been there at the birth of every child of one of his aides, to the point that he considered it an unspoken rule that he should be there, and he had pretty quickly learnt that it was not wise say that the babe, which they had just used the past while to give birth to, practically looked like any other babe of the same species.

For some reason, the mothers never took kindly to hearing this. It might have to do with their difficult emotional state after the immense ordeal, the fact that they wished for their child to be special and unique or an entirely different reason, but it was best just to smile and play the part. Well, except that Mercury was not exactly known amongst his aides for his excessive use of smiles, except for when he grinned, smirked or plastered one on to put strangers at ease, so smiling was actually a dead give-away, as he had quickly learned from experience.

"He looks to be a strong healthy babe with his father's eyes and your hair and nose. I am sure that he will grow into a fine young man one day", Mercury complemented the babe in his arms. In truth, Mercury would not have been able to tell that it was even a boy if he had not been told, as the white blanket covered most of the body.

"He does indeed", Ilumëo agreed happily, practically beaming at the little child, "what should we name him?"

It was a custom, if a strange one at that, that Mercury would name each child of his aide. It had started with Naina simply giving him the honours of choosing the name of her firstborn and had since developed from there to the point that none of his aides ever even thought of a name by themselves.

So, as he looked into the eyes of the squealing babe in his hands, Mercury began to ponder on what to name the child. It was during this thought process that for some reason or another, the babe grabbed his left index finger with its little hand and tried to pull it towards it.

Mercury, amused at the action, allowed the babe to pull his finger as it wished, and within moments, he found his left index finger being used as a pacifier. It was truly amazing that this little creature, so innocent and ignorant of the troubles of the world, would find comfort in his hands, the very same hands that had been steeped in so much blood and had done so many unspeakable things.

Mercury's path had been filled with lying, killing, assassinating, slaughtering and oh so much manipulation that it would make even the most merciful gods, if they had existed, cringe and turn away in horror. Mercury had actually at one time tried using an anonymous confession chamber of the local church in the province of Artaxia to confess all of his sins.

He had not done it because he thought that he would be absolved of his sins by doing it, as that in his mind would be like denying his responsibility to the victims of those sins to continue on doing what he had started, so that what he had done to them had not been in vain. In fact, it had more or less been a case of 'why not?', a sudden idea that had been sparked inside of him when he had ridden by the building.

He had felt a little bad about the priest's heart attack though, which had prompted him to leave a substantial donation when he had left the church afterwards.

But looking at the babe softly sucking on his leather covered finger, Mercury felt a calm of mind that he had not felt for over a year now, and he remembered that part of why he was doing all the horrible things that he was, the largest and most important reason for it all, was not because he felt guilty towards the sacrifices that he had had to make in the past, but because he fully believed that new generations, this generation even, would be far better off than if he had not decided to take matters into his own hands.

Soon, but still quite far away yet, the final pieces of the puzzle that he had been assembling for just shy of the last four centuries, would be assembled and his masterpiece would be complete. By the time that this babe had finally grown up to understand the concept of what his ancestors had trained for their whole lives, there would no longer be any need for him to do so. By that time, Mercury would have transcended the need for such mundane matters.

"He shall be named Blöthrren", Mercury declared, and as Ilumëo tasted the name for herself, he could see that she fully understood why he thought that the name would fit.

"Here, you try holding him", Mercury suddenly said as he dumped the babe into his father's arms, which made him cry at the loss of his pacifier, before Mercury turned to head out towards the door again, but before he left, he turned his head over his shoulder and said, "you did well, Ilumëo, and to you, Kolrka, I give you the rest of the day off. Enjoy".

And with that, he headed out and gathered his things to begin preparations for the meeting later today about the general financial situation of Albion and whether they could afford to begin the construction of public schools and hospitals yet. It was not that he was particular eager to be at this meeting, though it was mandatory for him to be there, but he would rather not infringe any further upon the family's moment.

Besides, near the end, the urge to devour the babe had begun to manifest in him.

**Loivissa POV  
**It had been two weeks since the genocide had begun; since Mercury had crossed the line so thoroughly that he would need a telescope to even hope to see it again. It had been an event that would follow Loivissa for the rest of her life, but it had had its uses as well.

Because of Mercury's actions, Loivissa had been able to convince her brother to finally come out of his shell and stop drinking, though she had had to heavily use said genocide in her arguments. It had felt too much like manipulating his emotions by constantly playing on his anger and feelings of guilt for what Loivissa was normally comfortable with, but she had pushed such concerns aside for the time.

They needed every able-bodied person that they could get to win this war, so it was alright to cross the line just a little to stop Mercury. He had already crossed it a long time ago after all. Still, even in his drunken state, Evandar had still managed to pick up on her manipulating him, and he had not been happy about it, but he had accepted that he could no longer afford to wallow in self-pity and despair.

When she had last seen him sober again, he had not thanked her for taking care of his duties in his stead, and because he had still been angry about her manipulating him, he had told her that if she was so good at it, then she should just do it from now on.

And so she had. She was the only one left that was qualified to lead this group to victory, and once her brother calmed down enough to realize that it was all done for the good of Alagaësia, he would thank her and say that was she had done had been the right thing to do.

Currently however, Loivissa, Evandar, Dweyrn, which had a mental connection to Augms, and Vanir were gathered in their headquarters to discuss what their response to all of this should be. Earl Karl had had to remain in Ilirea to keep up his cover, and since it was uncertain whether he was being watched, communication between him and Aiedail had had to be limited to only the strictly necessary, while his last remaining son, Garth, could not afford to make the trip from Carvahall to their headquarters, but he was still representing his father's interest via a magical mirror.

"We should help the elves with their rebellion", Garth suggested, "they are right on our doorstep, and if they succeed, then the rest of Alagaësia will soon follow".

"Do you remember even in the slightest what has happened each time we have gone up against the traitor's forces directly!?", Vanir asked angrily, "the first time, we lost the entire coastline and were unable to even take him down when we had him outnumbered and alone, the second time, we lost a quarter of a million of Alagaësia's population, while his other forces meanwhile rolled over Du Weldenvarden and the dwarven kingdom like they were nothing, and the third time, your brother, Delvaria, Nari and three dozen villagers were butchered in a curb-stomp battle. We cannot win by direct means!"

Vanir had come a long way after almost blowing their cover in Ilirea two weeks ago, partially because Loivissa had delivered the same arguments to him that he was now giving to Garth, and it gladdened her that it was he, and not she, that answered why they could not afford to become involved in the elven rebellion that had sprung up the last few days, as word of Special Order 66 began to trickle in.

According to the information that Vanir had managed to gather, it was being led by the very same elven group that Nari had been a representative of. Neither the dwarves nor the humans or urgals had followed suit, but Loivissa had not expected them to either, as Mercury had managed to convince the people of Ilirea that the genocide was a good thing, and the other races had never cared as much about the dragons as the elves had anyway.

"We will not involve ourselves in that affair, as it will no doubt be nothing more than another meaningless slaughter", Loivissa cut through, thereby ending the discussion before it could get up and going, "but neither can we allow Mercury to continue getting away with what he is doing, so I am asking each of you whether you have any ideas, no matter how crazy they may be, of finding a way to successfully negate any or all wards that he might have placed on his person?"

"We could try the amethyst-things that he is using against us? Turn his own weapon against him", Vanir suggested.

"But how would we get a hold of them?", Dweyrn asked, "I doubt that they are just lying around unguarded, and I do not know about you guys, but I am not willing to try and fight my way into one of their supply depots to try and get one".

"No, he has no doubts secured any and all stashes so well that it would take a small army to get in there, so we cannot hope to force our way to one", Loivissa agreed with the dwarven rider, "besides, I find it highly doubtful that he would implement a weapon like that without having some kind of defence against it. His body is still as frail as any human's, so he has to have some guarantees against that kind of attack. Anything else would be against his nature".

"Then that does not leave us with very many options", Vanir concluded.

"What if we were to find out what kind of defences that he might have against such attacks? Could we then try and negate them?", Garth questioned.

"We could try, but unless we know of someone that knows all of his dirty little secrets and is willing to tell us of them, then I highly doubt that we could figure out a counter simply by guessing", Dweyrn shrugged apathetically.

"There is one that might know", Evandar suddenly said and turned to look at Loivissa, thereby saying something for the first time since the meeting had started, "you said that his aide was the one that helped you out back when you were imprisoned in Teirm?"

"Yes, she was?", Loivissa confirmed, but did not see where he was going with this, "but as I mentioned then, she was doing it out of some loyalty to her master, so I doubt that she would be willing to help us just like that, and if we somehow managed to capture her and forced her to tell us what we want to know, then Mercury would no doubt expect that she broke and take precautions".

"I know, but you also said that she was not acting on Mercury's orders at the time", Evandar continued.

"…Which would make her actions not only be an act of treason against the Alliance, but also Mercury himself", Loivissa figured out where he was going with this, "so if we can get a chance to blackmail her by threatening to expose her involvement, then she would have no choice but to tell us, lest she suffers her master's wrath".

Loivissa knew that Mercury had never taken well to being betrayed, and she doubted very much that that trait had done anything but grow in the last four centuries. It would be just like him to employ such extreme retaliation against those that betrayed him that anyone that thought of doing it in the future would think twice about going through with their betrayal.

"But then we still have to find a way to get to her unnoticed", Vanir pointed out, "from what I have seen so far, part of the Varangian Guard is also responsible for guarding her, and I doubt very much that she even leaves Ilirea castle all that often".

"We could have the earl be the one to approach her?", Evandar suggested.

"No good, my father is on thin enough ice as it is", Garth objected, "one wrong word or move and he will be locked up forever, or worse".

"I will find a way for you to get to her", Dweyrn said to Loivissa, "since many of our traditions and customs were left untouched after our cities fell, most of the dwarves chose to ignore that anything had changed at all and were therefore more cooperative than the other races, so we are not looked upon with the same degree of suspicion by the Alliance guards. Plus, I was never captured or otherwise a leading figure, so it is doubtful that even the Varangian Guard will know of my existence".

"Then you shall do it then", Loivissa decided, "good luck to you, and may the stars watch over us all".

* * *

I always chuckle at Mercury's last line. It gets even funnier because whenever I read it, I keep thinking that if you in a classical folk's tale ever want to make a character irredeemably evil, your introduction of him includes "and he eats babies".

Oh, and is Loivissa and Aiedail beginning to gain momentum again? Only time shall tell.


End file.
